French presidential election in 2002

The French presidential election in 2002 took place on April 21 (first ballot) and May 5, 2002 (runoff). The surprising result of the first ballot was that the Front National candidate , Jean-Marie Le Pen , won more votes than Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and thus took part in the second ballot. Because of this, large sections of the left-wing parties also issued an election recommendation for incumbent Jacques Chirac for the runoff election ; this received 82.21% of the votes.

First ballot

Results of the first ballot. Relative majorities by department:

Jacques Chirac

Jean-Marie Le Pen

Lionel Jospin

Christiane Taubira

The first ballot took place on April 21, 2002.

Candidates

Demonstration against Jean-Marie Le Pen and the Front National on May 1, 2002 in Paris

A graffito sprayed on the street after the first ballot: 21 Avril: J'ai mal au cœur (“April 21: I'm sick”).

On April 4, 2002, the Constitutional Council established the official list of eligible candidates. The order within this list was determined by lot.

There were:

Bruno Mégret , Mouvement national républicain (right-wing extremist)
Corinne Lepage , head of the Citoyenneté Action Participation pour le XXIe siècle (green)
Daniel Gluckstein , Parti des travailleurs (PT) (Trotskyist)
François Bayrou , Union pour la démocratie française (centrist)
the incumbent President Jacques Chirac , Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) (liberal-conservative)
Jean-Marie Le Pen , Chairman of the National Front, ran for the fourth time as a presidential candidate for the FN (right-wing extremist)
Christiane Taubira , Parti radical de gauche (left-wing liberal)
Jean Saint-Josse , Chasse, Pêche, Nature, Traditions (CPNT, German: hunting, fishing, nature, traditions) (right-wing conservative)
Noël Mamère , Les Verts (green)
Lionel Jospin , Parti socialiste (PS) (social democratic)
Christine Boutin , Forum des républicains sociaux (FRS) (Christian Democratic)
Robert Hue , General Secretary of the Parti communiste (PCF) (Eurocommunist)
Jean-Pierre Chevènement , Mouvement des citoyens (MDC) (left-sovereign)
Alain Madelin , Démocratie Libérale (right-wing liberal)
Arlette Laguiller , Lutte Ouvrière's fifth presidential candidate (Trotskyist)
Olivier Besancenot , Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR) (Trotskyist)

Result

candidate	be right	proportion of
Jacques Chirac	5,665,855	19.88%
Jean-Marie Le Pen	4,804,713	16.86%
Lionel Jospin	4,610,113	16.18%
François Bayrou	1,949,170	6.84%
Arlette Laguiller	1,630,045	5.72%
Jean-Pierre Chevènement	1,518,528	5.33%
Noël Mamère	1,495,724	5.25%
Olivier Besancenot	1,210,562	4.25%
Jean Saint-Josse	1,204,689	4.23%
Alain Madelin	1,113,484	3.91%
Robert Hue	960.480	3.37%
Bruno Mégret	667.026	2.34%
Christiane Taubira	660.447	2.32%
Corinne Lepage	535.837	1.88%
Christine Boutin	339.112	1.19%
Daniel Gluckstein	132,686	0.47%

Second ballot

Chirac and Le Pen, who had qualified for the runoff election as top-placed in the first round of voting, both said they would stand as candidates. The Constitutional Council therefore officially declared her on April 25, 2002 as a candidate for the second ballot, which was scheduled for May 5, 2002.

The official result of the runoff election on May 5th was established on May 8th, 2002. In all departments Chirac had won by a long way ahead of Le Pen. With 82.21% he achieved the highest election result of all time in a French presidential election. Le Pen received the highest percentage of votes in the departments of Vaucluse (29.64%), Var (28.67%) and Alpes-Maritimes (28.68%), the lowest in the overseas departments (all below 10%).

The turnout was 79.7%. 5.4% of the votes were invalid.

candidate	be right	proportion of
Jacques Chirac	25,537,956	82.21%
Jean-Marie Le Pen	5,525,032	17.79%

Jacques Chirac was thus established as re-elected with effect from May 17, 2002.

Web links

Commons : French presidential election 2002 - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Ministre de l'intérieur , Décret n ° 2002-346 du 13 mars 2002 portant convocation des électeurs pour l'élection du Président de la République, JORF of March 14, 2002, p. 4634
↑ Conseil constitutionnel , Décision du 4 avril 2002 arrêtant la liste des candidats à l'élection présidentielle, JORF of April 5, 2002, p. 5999
↑ Conseil constitutionnel , Décision du 25 avril 2002 arrêtant la liste des candidats habilités à se présenter au second tour de l'élection présidentielle, JORF of April 26, 2002, p. 7487
^ Conseil constitutionnel , Décision du 8 mai 2002 portant proclamation des résultats de l'élection du Président de la République, JORF of 10 May 2002, p. 9084
↑ Les résultats de l'élection presidentielle 2002 - Résultats par départements au format Excel , results by départements as an Excel table on the website of the French Ministry of the Interior , accessed on August 21, 2010

[1] Ministre de l'intérieur , Décret n ° 2002-346 du 13 mars 2002 portant convocation des électeurs pour l'élection du Président de la République, JORF of March 14, 2002, p. 4634

[2] Conseil constitutionnel , Décision du 4 avril 2002 arrêtant la liste des candidats à l'élection présidentielle, JORF of April 5, 2002, p. 5999

[3] Conseil constitutionnel , Décision du 25 avril 2002 arrêtant la liste des candidats habilités à se présenter au second tour de l'élection présidentielle, JORF of April 26, 2002, p. 7487

[4] Conseil constitutionnel , Décision du 8 mai 2002 portant proclamation des résultats de l'élection du Président de la République, JORF of 10 May 2002, p. 9084

[5] Les résultats de l'élection presidentielle 2002 - Résultats par départements au format Excel , results by départements as an Excel table on the website of the French Ministry of the Interior , accessed on August 21, 2010