2023 Senate elections: everything you need to know about the September 24 election

Who are the “electors” required to vote on September 24? Which territories are represented by the 170 seats at stake? What’s new in this election? Why is the right the favorite? Overview of the 2023 senatorial elections in ten questions.

The senatorial elections will take place on Sunday September 24, in the prefectures of the departments concerned. In departments electing their senators by majority vote, the first round is held from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and the second round from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. In departments subject to proportional representation, the ballot is open from 8 a.m. 30 to 5:30 p.m.

The renewal concerns 38 metropolitan departments – the departments between Indre-et-Loire (37) and the Pyrénées-Orientales (66) and the eight departments of Ile-de-France – as well as six overseas territories. sea ??(Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte, New Caledonia and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon). Six of the twelve seats for French people established outside France will also be renewed on September 24.

In total, 170 seats are to be filled: 18 departments will elect their senators by majority vote (i.e. 34 senators) and 27 constituencies by proportional representation (i.e. 136 senators).

The electoral college of senators is made up, in each department, of senators, deputies, regional councilors (elected in the department), departmental councilors and delegates from municipal councils who, elected on June 9, represent approximately 95% of the 78 000 voters called to vote on September 24.

The number of municipal delegates depends on the size of the municipality: 1 delegate for municipalities with less than 500 inhabitants; 3 delegates for municipalities with 500 to 1,499 inhabitants; 5 delegates for municipalities with 1,500 to 2,499 inhabitants; 7 delegates for municipalities with 2,500 to 3,499 inhabitants; 15 delegates for municipalities with 3,500 to 8,999 inhabitants; in municipalities with 9,000 inhabitants or more, all municipal councilors are delegates; in municipalities with more than 30,000 inhabitants, 1 additional delegate per 800 inhabitants above 30,000.

To designate the senators of French people established abroad, the electoral college includes the deputies and senators representing French people abroad, as well as consular advisors and delegates.

Voting is compulsory for senatorial electors and their alternate delegates. A fine of 100 euros punishes any non-participation in the vote which is not justified.

The population of the constituency determines the number of seats to be filled, then the voting method. In departments electing one or two senators, the two-round single-member majority vote applies. To be elected in the first round, a candidate must obtain half of the votes cast and a number of votes at least equal to a quarter of the registered voters. In the event of a tie, a second round is organized in the afternoon, each person being able to maintain their candidate. The candidate obtaining the most votes becomes senator. In the event of a tie, the oldest joins the Senate.

In departments electing three or more senators, the proportional representation list system applies. The lists must be composed alternately of one candidate of each sex and contain as many names as there are seats at stake, plus two. Elected officials are appointed by application of the so-called “highest average” method. An electoral quotient is first determined by dividing the number of voters by the number of seats to be filled. The number of votes collected by each list, then divided by this electoral quotient (rounded down), gives the number of seats obtained by each list. If not all have been allocated, the number of votes collected by each list is divided by the number of seats already allocated plus one. The person who obtains the highest average is allocated an additional seat until all the seats have been allocated. Each list must contain two more names than there are seats to be filled in the event of a replacement.

The term of office is six years. Half of the Senate is renewed every three years. The minimum age for eligibility is 24 years.

The election for Senate president will take place on October 2, the opening day of the 2023-2024 regular session. An “age office”, chaired by the oldest elected official and made up of the six youngest among them, will fulfill the functions of secretaries until the final office is designated.

The president is elected by all the senators, after each renewal. An absolute majority of votes cast is necessary to be chosen in the first or second round. In the event of a third round, the relative majority is sufficient. A candidate can run in the second or third round without necessarily having been in the previous round.

Each group decides whether or not to present a candidate for president. In the absence of an absolute majority held by a group, the election, which takes place by secret ballot, can give rise to alliances, negotiations, negotiations in which the distribution of functions of responsibility (vice-presidencies, chairs of commission, quaestors, etc.) plays an important role.

With 118 women elected at the end of the last election (34%), compared to 230 men (66%), the Senate remains very largely male. More than the National Assembly coming out of the polls in 2022 (37.3% female deputies).

Although the number of women has increased significantly in recent decades (16 in 1992; 75 in 2008), the rules introduced to promote parity are struggling to reduce the gap, with some not holding back from openly disregarding them. In constituencies subject to proportional representation (applicable to 80% of seats to be filled this year), the lists must therefore present a male-female alternation. Some people easily found the solution. In Oise, for example, the three outgoing LR senators will each lead their list, their re-election for all three being unthinkable if they ran on the same list.

New in 2023: electoral campaigns lasting a few hours could well be held on the same day of the vote, i.e. September 24. A law, promulgated on February 2, 2023, and relating to the conduct of senatorial elections, authorizes candidates, in the event of a second round in constituencies subject to majority voting, to campaign between the two rounds (i.e. between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. 30).

Another particularity of this election: the embargo on results before 5:30 p.m. is lifted. The results of the first rounds can therefore be communicated at the end of the morning.

For the Senate, which has evolved under the domination of the right since the beginning of the Fifth Republic (with the exception of a three-year socialist parenthesis between 2011 and 2014), the half-renewal of September 24 will probably not upset the majors. balances.

The Republicans (LR), with their centrist allies, with their significant territorial coverage after the 2020 municipal elections, will undoubtedly retain the absolute majority at the Palais du Luxembourg. And, as they have now become accustomed to, the senators will immediately elect the elected representative (LR) of Yvelines Gérard Larcher as president of the institution, for the fifth time since 2008.

United in the Hemicycle during the battle against the extension of the legal retirement age to 64, three left-wing groups (socialists, ecologists and communists) will leave together in around fifteen departments, after having reached an agreement at the beginning of July. The environmental group of twelve elected officials should in particular take advantage of these senatorial elections to increase its number in proportion to the gains made during the 2020 municipal elections. For their part, the socialists and communists are aiming for “stability” with 64 and 15 senators respectively.

The three parties did not wish to include La France insoumise (LFI) in their alliance, as much due to their political disagreement with Jean-Luc Mélenchon as to the lack of local roots of the “insoumis” movement.

Faced with a right that enjoys solid foundations and a left that hopes to benefit from its union, it is the Macronists who have the most to lose. The Head of State’s supporters have a weak local presence, and certain outgoing candidates – defectors from the PS – are no longer popular with the voters of their territory which remains on the left. “We don’t have mayors,” sighs the president of the Rally of Democrats, Progressives and Independents group, François Patriat. Without fuel, you don’t run the scrap…”