It covers all French citizens living in the following sixteen countries of North-West Africa: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Tunisia.

As of New Year's Day 2011, it contained 133,936 registered French voters – of which 41,129 in Morocco, 28,287 in Algeria, 19,995 in Tunisia, 16,817 in Senegal, and 13,094 in Côte d'Ivoire.

[10] The Democratic Movement initially chose Frédérique Ruggieri as its candidate, with Jean-François Caracci as her deputy (suppléant).

The two, however, put an end to their joint ticket due to "differing points of view on certain international issues such as Syria or Palestine"; Caracci accused Ruggieri of arrogance and narrow-mindedness.

[13] It was subsequently announced, however, that Zine-Eddine M'jati, born and raised in Casablanca before he moved to France and entered French politics,[14] would be the party's candidate, still with Laurence Bonneterre as deputy.

[7] Solidarity and Progress, the French branch of the LaRouche movement, was represented by Yves Paumier, with Guy Pirod as his deputy.

Having been suspended from the party as a consequence, he stood for the "Gathering of French residents Overseas" (Rassemblement des Français de l'étranger).

Seven of the fourteen candidates took part, including Pouria Amirshahi (Socialist), Sihame Arbib (MoDem), Jean-Malick Lemaire (Left Front), and Zine-Eddine M'jati (EELV).

In addition to the issue of fees for access to French schools abroad, which the main candidates all promised to act upon, several members of the audience asked for François Hollande to rapidly keep his promise to give the right to vote to foreign residents in France in local elections, as this would enable French residents to vote in local elections in Morocco, which grants this right on the basis of reciprocity.

Côte d'Ivoire is the only country in the region in which the UMP's Khadija Doukkali finished first within a fairly sizable electorate, with 47.99% of the vote.

(France's UMP government had led a military intervention in Côte d'Ivoire to help bring an end to the 2011 civil war.)