It is possible to find the results of the second round of the legislative elections before 8 p.m. this Sunday, July 7. We explain how.
For this second round of early legislative elections, the rule has not changed, it is forbidden for a French media to publish estimates or the results of the vote before 8 p.m., the closing time of the last polling stations across the country. But as with every election for many years, you will surely see results emerging on the web before time, particularly from some foreign French-speaking media that are not subject to the same regulations. This is why it is entirely possible to find information on the outcome of the vote at Le Soir, Libre Belgique or RTBF. On the other hand, the veracity of this information is absolutely not guaranteed. This is why it is preferable to wait until 8 p.m. and the official results to avoid being fooled, misled or simply not coming across fake news. Below, a first projection of the new National Assembly according to the pollster Ipsos TalanPlease note that these are not the results of the second round but an estimate in terms of the number of seats.
Liberties taken by certain Belgian media
During the presidential election two years ago, several Belgian media outlets had published estimates and polls on the Internet. The “Poll Commission”, which governs the rules in France, had been very bothered. In particular, it had published a press release shortly before the vote in which it said it had received assurances from the 8 main French institutes (BVA, Elabe, Harris interactive, Kantar-TNS-Sofres, IFOP, Ipsos, Odoxa, OpinionWay) that none of them were behind these studies. It therefore described the polls published by media outlets that were nevertheless recognized as “rumors”. OpinionWay felt obliged to indicate on Twitter that it had not published “any data” on the vote.
The electoral code leaves no doubt as to the time of publication of the results, article L52-2 specifies: “No election result, partial or final, may be communicated to the public by any means whatsoever, in metropolitan France, before the closing of the last polling station on the metropolitan territory. The same applies in the overseas departments before the closing of the last polling station in each of the departments concerned”. However, while the polling stations close for the vast majority at 6 or 7 p.m., in large cities the opening hours are extended to 8 p.m. The monitoring of compliance with the timetables is such that no traditional media outlets risk defying the ban by publishing the results in advance on election nights.
Why can’t the results be published before 8pm?
The reason is simple: the law prohibits any dissemination of information on the score of candidates in ongoing elections, so as not to distort the vote. And in France, voting this Sunday does not close until precisely 8 p.m. However, the first results of the legislative elections will only be known well before 8 p.m.: polling institutes are taking readings in a few representative polling stations on French territory to establish the first estimates that will be given by the French media at 8 p.m. on all continuous news channels and online media, such as Linternaute.com.
These figures and estimates are confidential until H-hour, but with each election, there are leaks on social networks, particularly on Twitter with the hashtag #RadioLondres. Be careful with these messages, which are often coded: they may be rumors and false information, and if they are leaks of poll data, they remain unreliable before 8 p.m. It should also be noted that the Belgian and Swiss media are not subject to the French ban on broadcasting estimates for the 2024 legislative elections before 8 p.m.