1. French Elections

One consequence of the development of satellite television and the proliferation of news channels in almost all languages is the spread of the awareness about international affairs to even remote areas of our country (India). About 15 years back, people of Tamilnadu or Karnataka might not have even been conscious of an election in a North Indian state like UP or Bihar, much less paid attention to it. But this year's elections to UP and four other states were keenly watched by people all over India.

The interest has extended even to elections in different parts of the world. Today, even a villager in some remote part of India follows elections in the US and possibly other countries. I am sure that the Presidential election of France has been receiving the attention of a large number of people in India.

One interesting or even unique feature of the French Presidential Election is that the winner has to get more than 50% of the votes. In a many-cornered contest, often, no one gets more than 50% of the votes. In such a scenario, the two candidates getting the largest number of votes are selected for the final round.

In the final round, only two candidates will be in the fray. Therefore, one of them is bound to get more than 50% of the votes. In the just concluded French Presidential election, five candidates were in the fray. Mr. Macron got about 24% of the votes and Ms Le Pen about 21.5% (I am using the word 'about,' because only 97% of the votes have been counted at the time of my writing this line.)

With no candidate getting more than 50% of the votes, there will be another round of election on May 7, in which Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen will be the only two candidates. Whoever gets more than 50% in that election will be elected the President of France.

If this requirement of winning more than 50% of the votes had not been there, Mr. Macron, having received the largest number of votes among all the five candidates, would have become the President. A person for whom less than one fourth of the voters becoming the country's President can hardly be considered a reflection of the people's will!

But this is how members of parliament and legislative assemblies are being elected in India. In many constituencies, candidates getting less than 30% of the votes get elected because the remaining 70% of the votes have been split among the losing candidates!

Will it not be better if we adopt the French system? The results in many constituencies may change if we have this system. It will result in additional expenditure if we have to conduct the elections twice for most of the constituencies. But this system will ensure that every constituency is represented by a person elected by a majority of the people, not just by people whose number is larger than the number of people who voted for any of the other candidates.

Tailpiece: My guess is Ms Le Pen will win the second round and become the next President of France. If this happens, it will prove the sound reasoning behind the French system. (A similar two-round system is followed for election of members to the French Parliament as well.)