Triangular election in France

[3] This voting method was originally considered favourable to the Legitimists, Orleanists, and Bonapartists, three political movements of the French right wing, who suffered from division.

This is because many influencing factors, sometimes favouring the presence of three-way races, sometimes causing the number of second rounds with more than two candidates to fall, must be studied to better understand this evolution.

From the participation rate, it is then possible to use the expression opposite to formulate the retention threshold as a percentage of votes cast..

However, when comparing the evolution of the participation rate and the number of second rounds with more than two candidates during the legislative elections under the Fifth Republic, the correlation is far from obvious, as shown in the graph opposite.

[9][16][25] However, from this graph we can see two things: Thanks to these two curves, we can then better understand the role of participation in the frequency of appearance of triangular races: the higher it is, the more it favours the possibility of there being second rounds with more than two candidates (as was explained previously) On the other hand, the fact that participation is very high does not systematically imply that the number of triangular races is skyrocketing, for the simple reason that other factors must be taken into account.

Another factor influencing the number of triangular races is the presence of partisanship, which in France is known as bipolarisation or tripolarisation .

In this situation, the other candidates will then receive very few votes: in general, they will not reach the minimum threshold of registered voters to qualify for the second round.

By superimposing this influence factor on the curve of second rounds with more than two candidates during the legislative elections (1958 - 1997), the correlation is more accurate.

To understand, you have to know that before the withdrawals, the number of three-way races was 306, a value in line with the context of tripolarization and high participation mentioned above.