By Election Special – Part 2

In the event, no-one won.

It might be wondered how in a straight contest between only two candidates it would be possible for neither to achieve the required overall majority. A draw of course is always a possibility, albeit an unlikely one, but in this case one candidate polled about 40 votes more that the other.

However, there are some slightly obscure rules that can come into play.

For a start, for any election in France to be valid at least 25% of those eligible to vote must do so. Otherwise the whole thing is null and void.

Assuming this target is passed, then a candidate with an overall majority must ALSO have gained the votes of at least 25% of those eligible to vote, and Mr Bodin did not reach this figure.

So we proceed to another round.

What is interesting, though, is that although Mr Bodin beat Mme Guillon by 186 votes to 140-something, in each election in which he has stood he always seems to poll almost exactly the same number of votes, suggesting that he is probably getting his constituency motivated and out & about, but that they are not that numerous.

So we may still be able to grasp this seat for Mme Guillon simply by reminding people that she is standing. I am not impartial in this matter.

I wonder what the late Vincent Hanna would have made of all this?