RTBF could, as in the last elections, reveal information concerning the results of the legislative elections before 8 p.m.
Find your city to access the legislative results:
This Sunday, June 30, will RTBF again publish the results of the legislative elections in France in advance? It is possible but no details have been provided this time by Belgian radio on its website. She even reminds us that the official results do not fall before 8 p.m.
As a reminder, in France, the legislation on the dissemination of results on the day of an election is very strict: it is simply forbidden to communicate any information likely to influence the vote and voters who have not yet voted. This means that people with estimates of the results of the legislative elections this Sunday do not have the right to put them online on the Internet, nor on a media or even on a social network, before the very last office closes. voting. And in France, it’s at 8 p.m. Anyone not complying with the law is liable to a fine of 75,000 euros.
You should know that foreign media, particularly French-speaking Swiss and Belgian media, are not subject to this Franco-French rule. It is therefore not impossible that La Libre Belgique, Le Soir or RTBF will put on their website this Sunday, June 30, information relating to the results of the Legislative elections in France well before 8 p.m. In the age of the Internet, it is therefore very easy to obtain trends on the French ballots before the French media are authorized to give them.
Even in the event of advance announcements from our Belgian neighbors, let us remember that this information should be taken with a grain of salt and often includes false data. The French media are forced to wait until 8 p.m., when the last polling stations close, to reveal the results of the vote.
During the last presidential election, in 2022, the French-speaking Belgian Radio Television (RTBF) aroused interest by revealing and relaying “poll” results, giving the scores of Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the Sunday of the first round, while voting was still underway in France. Far-fetched polls, without a clearly identified reliable source, which sometimes had great difficulty in being verified in the official results. The Polling Commission then raised its voice by contacting polling institutes “to ensure that the commitment made not to carry out exit polls had been respected”.
RTBF is accustomed to this, and it is not the only one. Since 2007, several French-speaking media abroad, starting with public radio and television, have taken great pleasure in overtaking their French counterparts by publishing on their websites figures on the results of the vote before 8 p.m., legal time of closure of the last polling stations for these 2024 legislative elections. It is crucial to note that publishing or using this information before the official time may violate electoral and ethical rules in France. As a journalist, it is important to respect official embargoes and exercise caution when reporting confirmed information.
Anticipated results in the last elections
During the last presidential election, RTBF assumed this and revealed on its website that it would broadcast several waves of results. Before 7 p.m., it intended to broadcast the first polls but still warned: “The main polling institutes in France have, however, reached an agreement this year with the polling commission to no longer carry out these polls. The professionalism of polls carried out this year are therefore subject to caution.” RTBF also recalled that these polls were only a “photograph at a time t” of the vote and that the differences could then be significant with the final score.
On April 24, RTBF had notably delivered estimates for the second round of elections from “two polling institutes” whose identities were not specified. Belgian radio and television (RTBF) had also published results presented as “definitive” for several overseas departments and territories in the middle of the afternoon. Guyana, Saint-Pierre-en-Miquelon, Guadeloupe, and French Polynesia were among them. Linternaute.com, like all French media, could not, however, reproduce these results before 8 p.m., as the rule in France is not to communicate any results while the vote is in progress.
Some companies and think tanks specializing in electoral analysis can offer projections based on the data available throughout the day. International media can also provide analyses and estimates based on observed trends. It remains to be seen whether this year again, RTBF will publish in advance the first trends concerning the results of the 2024 legislative elections.