The first results of participation fell at noon. And against all odds, and as the school holidays started this weekend in the region, more Ile-de-France voters went to vote for this second round than during the first.
While turnout was 26.41% at national level, it is in the Paris region that people vote the least, while the turnout rate in certain departments such as Paris (75) and Seine- Saint-Denis (93) is often one of the weakest in France.
Participation up at noon
However, the second round of this presidential election seems to have remobilized the crowds: in each of the 8 Ile-de-France departments, the turnout at noon is in fact equivalent to or higher than in the first round.
This is the case of Paris (75), which shows a participation rate of 20.71% at noon this Sunday April 24, while it was only 15.34% Sunday April 10 for the first round. Same thing in Yvelines (78), where the turnout this Sunday is 22.41%, against 20.85% in the first round.
But also in Essonne (91), where the participation rate this Sunday is 23.57%, against 18.89% in the first round, in Hauts-de-Seine (92), where the participation rate this Sunday is of 22.62%, against 19.13% in the first round.
Just like in Val-de-Marne (94), where the turnout this Sunday is 21.74%, against 19.84% in the first round, or in Val d’Oise (95), where the rate participation this Sunday is 21.18%, against 18.82% in the first round.
Even in Seine-Saint-Denis (93), a department which has the lowest participation this Sunday at noon, the figures are up compared to the first round, with 15.37% participation, against 14.71% Sunday April 10 .
Only Seine-et-Marne shows a participation rate of 23.65% at noon, almost equivalent to that of the first round (23.7%)
The capital under the magnifying glass
Similar figures, or even higher in Seine-et-Marne, Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-Marne, to those observed during the second round of the 2017 presidential election.
In Paris, for example, 21.79% of voters went to vote before noon during the second round of the 2017 presidential election, against 20.71% this Sunday. That is barely more than 280,000 people out of the 1,355.541 voters from the capital.
An increase in participation compared to the first round, but which remains low for all that and which is explained in particular by several factors: already because Parisians are more used to going to vote at the end of the day (the polling stations have only been open since 4am at the time of the noon estimates, and still remain open for 8am until 8pm) and then, because the school holidays have just started in the region.
In this regard, the number of proxies also jumped by 17% between the first and second rounds, with 103,335 proxy requests processed three days before the second round.
As for the difficulties encountered by the Parisians to vote in the first round, in particular faced with endless queues and a significant lack of assessors, they were normally anticipated.
If the Parisian municipality called on those who could to go to the polls during the day and not at the end of the day, it also called on the major political parties to mobilize en masse to propose additional assessors. In addition, 300 people applied to join the ranks if necessary.