Two-round system significant event presidential election in France
Examples
French presidential elections
2002
In the 2002 French presidential election, the two contenders described by the media as possible winners were Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin, who represented the largest two political parties in France at the time. However, 16 candidates were on the ballot, including Jean-Pierre Chevènement (5.33%) and Christiane Taubira (2.32%) from the Plural Left coalition of Jospin, who refused by excess of confidence to dissuade them. With the left vote divided among a number of candidates, a third contender, Jean-Marie Le Pen, unexpectedly obtained slightly more than Jospin in the first round:Jacques Chirac (Centre-right, Gaullist): 19.88%
Jean-Marie Le Pen (Far-right, National Front): 16.86%
Lionel Jospin (Centre-left, Socialist): 16.18%The other candidates received smaller percentages on the first round.
Because no candidate had obtained an absolute majority of the votes in the first round, the top two candidates went into the second round. Most supporters of the parties which did not get through to the second round (and Chirac's supporters) voted for Chirac, who won with a very large majority: