The senatorial elections begin this Friday. The delegates of the municipal councils, who will make up the major part (95%) of the electoral college called to elect 170 senators on September 24, 2023, must be appointed on June 9. The Senate is renewed by half every three years by indirect universal suffrage, by a college of senatorial electors, often called “grand electors”. This college, of approximately 162,000 electors, is also made up of deputies, senators, regional advisers and departmental advisers.
With regard to the delegates of the municipal councils, their designation varies according to the weight of the municipalities. In municipalities with fewer than 9,000 inhabitants, they are elected by and from among municipal councillors, but not all municipal councilors are delegates by right, says vie-publique.fr. The number of delegates in these small municipalities differs according to the size of the municipal council: one delegate is elected for municipal councils of 7 and 11 members, 3 delegates for municipal councils of 15 members, 5 delegates for 19 members, 7 delegates for 23 members and 15 delegates for 27 and 29 members.
In municipalities of 9,000 to 30,000 inhabitants, all municipal councilors are delegates by right. In municipalities with more than 30,000 inhabitants, all municipal councilors are also delegates by right, and additional delegates must be elected at the rate of one for every 800 inhabitants above 30,000. In all municipalities, alternate delegates must also be elected. Their number varies according to the number of titular delegates.
The lecturer also underlines through this method of appointing delegates from municipal councils a “slight over-representation of small municipalities and a fairly large under-representation of very large cities”. The reason is as follows: “As the top additional delegate share cannot be greater than the number of designated city councillors, there is a time when you cannot top up delegates. This explains why the Senate is traditionally anchored on the right: “The leftist vote, historically, tends to be concentrated in the big metropolises. »
