Elections for Class A Senators will be held on September 21 (Sunday). This will concern a third of deparments, and the term will be 6 years instead of the hilariously long 9 years. Starting in 2011, Senate elections will concern half of the departments each election.

The composition on June 30, 2008 was:
23 PCF, 95 Soc, 17 Rads, 30 centrists, 159 UMP, 6 NI.
and those up for election
3 PCF, 29 Soc, 8 Rads, 4 centrists, 56 UMP, 1 NI.

New seats: 12 new seats: 1 each for the Ain, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, Eure-et-Loir, Haute-Garonne, Gironde, Hérault, Guyane, Polynesia. 2 new seats each for the new DOMs of Saint-Barth and Saint-Martin. In 2011, there will be 5 new seats (in Class B seats).

Electors:

Electoral college of 50,720 elected officials (49,602 in metro France). 48,453 are local councillors, 178 are MPs, 765 are regional councillors, and 1,504 are general councillors.

Elector rules:

(Commune size : Delegates)

• 1 to 499 people: 1 delegate
• 500 to 1499 people: 3 delegates
• 1500 to 2499 people: 5 delegates
• 2500 to 3499 people: 7 delegates
• 3500 to 8999 people: 15 delegates
• 9000 to 30000 people: All councillors (either 29, 33, 35, or 39 delegates depending on pop.)
• 30000 and over: All councillors + one other delegate for each 1000 inhabitants.
• Overseas seats: Elected by the Assembly of French Abroad (AFE). So, elected by a bunch of nobodies that nobody knows or bothers to vote for. Mostly a bunch of old French ladies that are bored at home.

Elections:

• Departments with 1 to 3 senators: two-round voting. Same system as legislative elections. Vendee 2004 election
• Departments with more than 4 senators: Proportional representation with highest average, no Panachage or preferential voting. See explanation below.

1. determination of the number of candidates elected in each list:
ex: 5 seats
1532 votes expressing a view
1532/5= 306.4 (quotient)
a. seat attribution using the quotient
List A: 1023 votes/306.4 (quotient)= 3.34 or 3 seats
List B: 258/306.4=0.84 or 0 seats
List C: 251/306.4=0.82 or 0 seats
b. attribution of remaining seats using highest averages
4th seat
List A: 1023 votes/(3 seats + 1 simulated seat)= 255.75
List B: 258/(0+1)=258
List C: 251/(0+1)=251
List B gets the 4th seat
5th seat
List A: 1023 votes/(3 seats + 1 simulated seat)= 255.75
List B: 258/(1+1)=129
List C: 251/(0+1)=251
List A gets the last seat
Real-life example (Jesus, I’m sounding like a math textbook): Seine-Saint-Denis 2004 election
Overseas seats use this method too.

2008 election:
Department (number of electors): Composition by group.

Ain (1563)
2 UMP
1 new seat

Aisne (1778)
2 UMP
1 vacant (RDSE)

Allier (970)
2 UMP

Alpes de Haute-Provences (459)
1 PS

Hautes-Alpes (400)
1 UMP

Alpes-Maritimes (1814)
3 UMP
1 RDSE
1 new seat

Ardèche (979)
1 PS
1 UMP

Ardennes (957)
2 UMP

Ariège (611)
1 PS

Aube (958)
1 UMP
1 NI (liberal one-man party, DVD)

Aude (1063)
2 PS

Aveyron (859)
1 UMP
1 idiot (a MPF member in the RDSE group, the most pro-European group there is)

Bouches-du-Rhône (3262)
3 PS
2 UMP
1 UC-UDF
1 PCF

Calvados (1978)
2 UMP
1 UC-UDF

Cantal (524)
2 UMP

Charente (1093)
1 UMP
1 UC-UDF

Charente-Maritime (1626)
3 UMP

Cher (871)
2 UMP

Corrèze (748)
1 UMP
1 RDSE

Corse-du-Sud (366)
1 RDSE

Haute-Corse (536)
1 RDSE

Côte-d’Or (1566)
3 UMP

Côtes-d’Armor (1628)
2 PS
1 PCF

Creuse (500)
2 PS

Dordogne (1301)
1 PS
1 UMP

Doubs (1514)
3 UMP

Drôme (1280)
2 PS
1 new seat

Eure (1721)
3 UMP

Eure-et-Loir (1229)
2 UMP
1 new seat

Finistère (2096)
3 PS
1 UMP

Gard (1688)
3 PS

Haute-Garonne (2452)
4 PS
1 new seat

Gers (755)
1 RDSE
1 UMP

Gironde (3006)
3 UMP
2 PS
1 new seat

Hérault (2094)
1 UMP
1 RDSE
1 PS
1 new seat

Ille-et-Vilaine (2317)
3 UMP
1 UC-UDF

Indre (684)
2 UMP

Belfort (356)
1 PS

Guyane (358)
1 RDSE
1 new seat

Polynesia (697)
1 UMP
1 new seat

Saint-Martin (23)
1 new seat

Saint-Barthélemy (19)
1 new seat

Wallis-et-Futuna (21)
1 UMP

French Citizens Abroad (?) This concerns only 5 of the 12 seats
4 UMP
1 PCF

The electoral system prevents a large-scale pink wave in this election and there is little chance that the PS will gain control of the Senate. In addition, some seats are decided by a small amount of votes, so division on the left or right doesn’t help.

See:

http://www.senat.fr/senateurs/elections/2008/
http://www.senat.fr/senateurs/elections//2008/brochure.pdf
http://www.senat.fr/senateurs/elections/2008/senatoriales2008/ar/liste_composition_par_groupe_politique_serie.pdf