A total of 1200 French nationals residing in Cyprus are scheduled to vote for Sunday's second round of legislative elections as the French will head to the polls to elect their MPs in 501 constituencies. According to Cedric Baniel, Consul of France in Cyprus, the elections for the French nationals are going to be held on Sunday at the French Embassy. 'We have only one polling station for the whole island, it will be open from 8am until 6pm, ten hours straight, no break, so that people can come at any time to vote', he told CNA. He said the one thing about these legislative elections that is a bit different from other elections, for example, the European Parliament elections, is that the French people overseas, and only overseas, have the opportunity to vote online. For the first round of the elections last week, they had the opportunity to do so, if they gave the relevant information and received a code which would enable them to vote online from Tuesday until Thursday. This week, voters had the opportunit y to vote online from Tuesday again until Thursday. Of course if they vote online they cannot vote in person, he added. For the first round, a total of 287 French nationals in Cyprus voted online and 104 at the ballot box. Voting is not mandatory. According to Baniel, as the French vote to elect French deputies, those living overseas have their own deputies. Cyprus is part of the Eighth Constituency for French residents overseas together with Israel, Italy, the Holy See (Vatican) Malta, San Marino and Turkey and they vote for a single deputy who will represent French people in these countries and not for the deputies who will represent the French in their country. Israel has the highest number of French people in this constituency and therefore the highest influence. A total of 400 thousand people voted online in the first round of the elections, with Baniel noting there has been 'a big mobilization for this election. If I compare to the European elections which took place a few weeks ago, more people vote d', he added. In the first round of the elections, held on June 30, 76 MPs were elected including 39 for the National Rally (RN) and its allies, 32 for the New Popular Front (NFP) and 2 for President Emmanuel Macron's Ensemble coalition. Source: Cyprus News Agency
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