Constituencies for French residents overseas

The eleven constituencies. (Note Bhutan, North Korea and Western Sahara in grey.)

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The constituencies for French residents overseas are eleven French constituencies, each electing one representative to the National Assembly.

They were created by the 2010 redistricting of French legislative constituencies, the aim of which was to enable French citizens overseas (Français établis hors de France) to be represented as such, rather than vote in a constituency on French territory, as was the case previously. Their creation does not increase the overall number of seats in the Assembly, which remains stable at 577, since it is compensated for by a redrawing of boundaries which reduces the number of seats in France itself to 566. These measures were implemented for the June 2012 legislative election. (There are already Senators representing overseas citizens, since 1982, but, like all French Senators, they are elected indirectly, by the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad.)^[1][2][3][4]

The creation of these constituencies created some controversy, when Le Monde estimated that they would be far more favourable to the main centre-right party, the Union for a Popular Movement, then in power, than to the main centre-left party, the Socialist Party. The newspaper pointed out that, in nine of these constituencies, a majority of voters appeared to favour the right, based on the figures from the 2007 French presidential election. The constituency of Central and Eastern Europe and that of North-West Africa were the only ones to appear left-leaning.^[5] While Le Monde provided the figures without comment, left-wing politicians such as Socialist MP Jean-Jacques Urvoas suggested that the government was attempting to provide itself with extra seats, and Communist MP Jean-Paul Lecoq suggested overseas citizens should continue to vote solely in French constituencies.^[6]

In all, the Americas are divided into two constituencies, North and South (1 & 2); Europe into six (3 to 8), with the eighth constituency also incorporating Israel; and Africa into two (9 & 10), with the tenth constituency also incorporating the Arabian peninsula as well as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The eleventh constituency, the largest, includes every other country in Asia, as well as the entirety of Oceania, along with Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. Overseas departments and territories of France are not included, as they are de jure part of France, and already have their own electoral constituencies. In addition, North Korea, which is not diplomatically recognised by France, is not part of any constituency. The same is true of Bhutan. Kosovo, which is recognised by France, is part of the seventh constituency. Taiwan is incorporated into the eleventh constituency as part of China, as France recognises the One China policy. Western Sahara is not part of any constituency - being neither recognised as part of Morocco, nor included in the ninth constituency in its own right. The status of the Palestinian territories is not explicitly defined, but French residents there were able to vote, as part of the same constituency as Israel. Other self-proclaimed and de facto but non-recognised independent countries, such as Somaliland or Abkhazia, are incorporated as part of the country which claims sovereignty over them.^[7][8]

List of constituencies

Constituency	Region	Number of countries	Current MP	Photo	Party	Elected in...
First	Canada and United States	2	Frédéric Lefebvre		UMP	2013
Second	Central America, Caribbean and South America	33	Sergio Coronado		EELV	2012
Third	Northern Europe	10	Axelle Lemaire		PS	2012
Fourth	Benelux	3	Philip Cordery		PS	2012
Fifth	Andorra, Monaco, Portugal and Spain	4	Arnaud Leroy		PS	2012
Sixth	Liechtenstein and Switzerland	2	Claudine Schmid		UMP	2012
Seventh	Central and Eastern Europe (including Kosovo)	16	Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’		PS	2012
Eighth	Southern Europe, Israel (and the Palestinian territories) and Turkey	8	Meyer Habib		UDI	2013
Ninth	North-west Africa	16	Pouria Amirshahi		PS	2012
Tenth	Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, much of the Middle East	48	Alain Marsaud		UMP	2012
Eleventh	Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Oceania, most of Asia	49	Thierry Mariani		UMP	2012

Electoral results

2012

The 2012 legislative election resulted in the election of the very first National Assembly members representing French residents overseas.

Voting occurred over a week, from 23 to 29 May or on 2 or 3 June for the first round, well in advance of voting in metropolitan France (10 June) or certain French overseas territories and departments (9 June). Second round voting occurred from 6 to 12 June or on 16 or 17 June (as opposed to 17 June alone in metropolitan France). Unlike their compatriots in France itself, expatriates could vote by postal ballot or over the Internet, though they could of course vote in person in their local consulate. The date depends on voters' location and the method by which they cast their ballot. If an expatriate voted via the Internet, he or she had a week to do so from 23 to 26 May. A postal ballot could be cast, if received by 31 May in the Americas or by 1 June in the rest of the world. Those who preferred to vote in person in their local consulate had to do so on 2 June in the Americas or 3 June in the rest of the world.^[9][10]

In April 2011, the ruling Union for a Popular Movement chose several prominent members to stand as candidates overseas. Thus, Frédéric Lefebvre, Secretary of State for Commerce, was chosen as UMP candidate for the First constituency; Éric Besson, Minister of Industry, for the Fifth; and Thierry Mariani, Secretary of State for Transport, for the Eleventh.^[11]

By contrast, the Socialist Party preferred to select long-term residents of their respective constituencies, who are active in their local community but generally unknown in national French politics.^[12]

Numerous other parties presented candidates, in particular the MoDem and the Left Front. Many independent candidates were also present in all consistencies.

In the first round, the Socialist Party finished first in six constituencies, while a Socialist-endorsed Green candidate finished first in the second constituency (Central America, Caribbean and South America). The Union for a Popular Movement finished first in the other three (the fifth, tenth and eleventh). The second round, in every constituency except the second, was a run-off between the Socialist Party and the UMP.^[13] The second round confirmed this trend, with the left taking eight seats, and the UMP only three. This was a significant surprise; early indications had been that most of the seats would go to the right. Indeed, the UMP government had been accused of having created these constituencies so as to establish right-wing safe seats.^[14][15] The left's victory in North America was described as "incredible", and explained, by commentators in Libération, as being due to Socialist candidate Corinne Narassiguin's strong and active campaign, and local voters' rejection of UMP candidate Frédéric Lefebvre, perceived as knowing little about North America and as barely speaking English.^[16]

Turnout was particularly low in every constituency (from 13 to 28%). A number of expatriates, living far from any polling station, said they had been unable to vote online, because they had not received the necessary login codes, or because of errors when they attempted to log in and cast their vote. Others said they had abstained deliberately, considering that they should not be voting in an election when the results would primarily affect residents of France. Others considered that the candidates were necessarily ill-suited to represent the interests of expatriates scattered over often vast and diverse territories.^[17] Based on projections from the 2007 presidential election results, the carving of constituencies should have resulted in a 9-to-2 division of the seats between the UMP and the Socialists, however French expatriates ended up electing seven Socialists, one Green (Europe Écologie - Les Verts) and three UMP deputies. The results were likely impacted by low turnout and support for Francois Hollande following his presidential election.

In February 2013, the elections of Socialist MPs Corinne Narassiguin and Daphna Poznanski-Benhamou were annulled by the Constitutional Council, due to irregularities in the funding of their electoral campaigns. They were barred from standing for public office for a period of one year. Four defeated right-wing candidates in their two constituencies were also barred from standing for public office for a year, for the same reason.^[18]

Elected MPs:^[19]

External links

Media related to Constituencies for French residents overseas at Wikimedia Commons

• Official map of the eleven constituencies (French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs)
• Candidates' campaign leaflets for the 2012 election (French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs)

See also

• Overseas constituencies of the Parliament of Italy

References