French expatriates around the world turned out in large numbers last weekend as the country elected its first Socialist Party president since Francois Mitterrand in the 1980s.
French authorities encourage their citizens living or working overseas to vote. In Mexico, voting took place on Saturday, May 5, a day earlier than the poll in France.
According to Sara Fine at the French Embassy in Mexico City, ten polling places were set up around the country, with voting permitted between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Five were in the capital and the remainder in Guadalajara, Monterrey, Queretero, Cancun and Puebla. The polling place in Guadalajara was the Alliance Francaise cultural/educational center on Lopez Cotilla.
Fine said observers from each of the main political parties in France were present at the Mexican polls.Once the polls closed, the supervisor counted the votes and transmitted the results back to electoral authorities in France.
Although the exact figures are confidential, unofficial sources estimate that around 300 French citizens voted in Guadalajara.
Fine said an estimated 17,000 French expatriates are living in Mexico City.
France’s new president, Francois Hollande, ended the five-year term of Nicolas Sarkosy of the center-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) party. Analysts say his victory was largely a result of anger at austerity measures triggered by the eurozone debt crisis, combined with the widespread unpopularity of Sarkosy.
French expatriates will get to vote again in June in the parliamentary elections. This time, however, they will be able to cast their votes earlier and send them in by mail.
Turnout for Sunday’s presidential election was a high 80 percent.