May 1815 French legislative election
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All 629 seats in the Chamber of Representatives 315 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||
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Legislative elections were held in France between 8 and 22 May 1815 for the period of the Hundred Days. The elections were held to appoint deputies to the Chamber of Representatives established by the Additional Charter of 22 April 1815. The elections were the first since April 1799 and last of the 'republican system' until the Charter of 1830.
Background
After his return from the
This act overhauls the Parliament which is divided into two chambers: the
In the system established by the Charter of 1815, each district or department formed an 'electoral college'. The college would provide the framework of the elections in France for the next 100 years and continues in a similar fashion today. Each college would table the votes achieves by those who voted (any man of 25 years or older who paid taxes could vote).[1][2][4][5]
There were 13 further 'special districts' established also known as arrondissements, between which the votes are equally divided according to a second table. These special districts represented certain areas of high concentrations of essential workers, like merchants, shipowners, bankers, etc. The electoral system therefore left 629 representatives from the departments, and 23 of which were from these special districts.[1][2][4][5]
The Additional Act was ratified by
Results
In order to elect the Chamber of Representatives, the electoral colleges were convened for 8 May 1815, when Napoleon could very well have postponed the election in view of the international situation. Thus the constitution comes into force even before the people have spoken about it. Under these conditions, voter turnout was very low: in 67 departments out of 87, the colleges were unable to achieve the 50%+1 turnout that the law required. Overall turnout was 37% in the departments (7,538 of 20,431 electors) and 45% in the arrondisements (32,538 of 72,199 electors).[6] In Marseille, a city where the bourgeoisie was royalist, just thirteen electors choose four deputies.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Jacobin Republicans | 30-40 | |||
Total | 629 | |||
Total votes | 40,076 | – | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 92,630 | 43.26 | ||
Source: Boudon,[6] Hussey[7] |
References
- ^ a b c d "Collège électoral du département et Collèges électoraux d'arrondissement (Mai et Août 1815, 1816) Élections législatives de 1819 et (préliminaires) de 1827 (FR-FRAD015 - FRAD015_27_J)". Archives départementales du Cantal. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Acte additionnel aux Constitutions de l'Empire du 22 avril 1815 | Conseil constitutionnel". www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr (in French). Retrieved 6 October 2021.
- ^ "LE SUFFRAGE CENSITAIRE (1815-1848) : ses électeurs et ses élus dans le Lot et dans le canton de Gramat" (PDF). Racines-Alvignac. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
- ^ a b "Connaissance de l'Assemblée : L'élection des députés". www.assemblee-nationale.fr. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
- ^ a b "Statistique électorale de la France de 1815 à 1877" (PDF). Journal de la société statistique de Paris. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
- ^ a b Jacques-Olivier Boudon (2014) Citoyenneté, République et Démocratie en France: 1789-1899
- ISBN 9781784384944.
He ordered elections, but the result was that out of 629 seats in the lower Chambre only about 80 were won by Bonapartists, between 30 and 40 went to Jacobins, and some 500 were gained by Liberals.