France is divided into 577 constituencies (circonscriptions) for the legislative elections (555 in the Metropolitan France, 22 in the Overseas departments and territories). Members of Parliament to the National Assembly (the lower, directly elected House) are elected in a two round system to a term fixed to a maximum of five years. The last redistricting took place in 1986.
In 2009, a new redistricting was adopted, with the dual purpose of ensuring a more equal number of voters per constituency, and of providing seats in the National Assembly to French citizens resident overseas. Thirty-three constituencies were abolished, and thirty-three new ones created. Of the latter, nineteen were in France, while the rest of the world was divided into eleven constituencies for French residents overseas. These constituencies will be the ones represented in the June 2012 legislative election.
The list below is that of constituencies prior to 2012.
Famous quotes containing the word constituency:
“But also the constituency determines the vote of the representative. He is not only representative, but participant. Like can only be known by like. The reason why he knows about them is, that he is of them; he has just come out of nature, or from being a part of the thing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)