June 2017, Paris

The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) and several of its member organisations from Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Germany and Lithuania will conduct a research trip to the upcoming second and decisive round of the French parliamentary elections. Six election experts from the EPDE network will participate in this study trip to the elections that will take place on 18 June 2017.

Aim of this research mission is to receive insights into French electoral practice and to compare it with EPDE’s experience from other European countries and the United States. With this, the experts will put the French election system in a comparative context and have a better basis for informing about elections in their home countries.

Another objective of the group is to provide a qualified and unbiased coverage of the upcoming elections in France in the Russian-language independent mass media.

To that end, EPDE will meet with French local authorities, candidates, influential think tanks and local experts and discuss technical questions as well as topics of current political importance. Furthermore, EPDE’s experts will visit several polling stations on Election Day.

Reports about this mission by the experts will be published soon on epde.org.