Le Pen: French Election System Is 'Anti-Democratic'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 10, 2002

Le Pen: French Election System Is 'Anti-Democratic'

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French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen denounced the French election system as "anti-democratic" immediately following the announcement of estimates that his Front National (FN) has lost much of its ground in the first round of parliamentary election held on Sunday.

"The fact that there is very few deputies (from my party) results naturally from an anti-democratic system, which is that ofthose who are in power -- the right and the left, and who are withall convenience to get re-elected and to stop millions of French --those of the Front Nationals -- from being represented at the National Assembly," said Le Pen in a speech broadcast live at French television TF1.

The FN won only around 11.5 percent of the vote -- a drop of more than five points from his score in the first round of the presidential elections in April. With the score of the smaller National Republican Movement included, the far-right won around 13percent of the vote.

With these figures, the FN is estimated to gain at most two seats in the lower house of Parliament because of France's single-member constituency system in legislative election.

"What is a representative democracy in the one (France) where millions of voters are not represented?" said Le Pen at TF1.

A total of 8,444 candidates stood in Sunday's race for the 577 deputy seats in the National Assembly. One deputy is elected in each constituency that represents about 100,000 citizens.

A candidate can be elected outright in the first round if he orshe wins an absolute majority on valid votes cast. If no one prevails in the first round, the two front-runners and any other candidate winning more than 12.5 percent move in the second one onJune 16, for which a relative majority is enough to secure victory.

Since the voting is on a constituency basis without any elements of proportional representation, estimates said the FN might get final victory in round two in only a few constituencies though it might see its candidates make it into the run-off in about 300 constituencies.

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