Having elected a new president last month, it is time to elect the new legislature (via the BBC): France holds parliamentary vote

France’s voters are returning to the polls in parliamentary elections, only a month after Nicholas Sarkozy was elected as their new president.

His UMP party looks likely to increase its majority in the lower house, the national assembly, enabling him to push through sweeping economic reforms.

The Socialists, whose presidential candidate Segolene Royal lost to Mr Sarkozy, are expected to lose seats.

A second round of voting will be held in a week’s time.

French legislative elections (for the lower house) are based on single member districts, like in the US and the UK, but unlike those two example, where a plurality is enough to win, the French system requires an absolute majority of the vote (i.e., 50% + 1) in the first round. In districts where any candidates fails to reach that mark, there will be a run-off next week. Any candidate who wins 12.5% in the first round moves onto the second, where the winner is the one with the most votes. I believe that the 12.5% threshold is of registered voters, not of the vote cast.

The upper house is indirectly elected and is far less powerful than the lower house.

Here’s what’s at stake for Sarkozy:

France has not returned the same government to power since 1978 - but this time the pattern looks set to change, the BBC’s Emma Jane Kirby in Paris says.

The “blue wave” being predicted for France should mean the president will have strong backing with which to implement his ambitious programme of economic reforms, our correspondent adds.

Further, if his party was to fail to win enough seats, it would mean a serious re-shuffling of the cabinet, as the Prime Minister and the Cabinet must be approved by the National Assembly.