Elections: why the mandate of regional and departmental councils will last 7 years and not 6?

The mandate of the next regional and departmental councils will last 6 years and 9 months, and not 6 years, as is generally the case. We explain why.

ByC. Br|

Since the law of March 2, 1982, regional councilors are elected by direct universal suffrage, for a renewable six-year term. And, since the law of May 17, 2013, the departmental advisers are also renewed in full every six years (against a renewal by half every three years before), recalls the Ministry of the Interior.

The two elections now take place at the same time, and voters vote for the regional and departmental elections on the same day, traditionally in March.

This year, due to the Covid-19 crisis, the elections have been postponed from March to June 2021, so that they can take place in better sanitary conditions. This had already been the case last year for the municipal elections. Scheduled for March, the first round went well on March 15, but the second round was postponed to June 28.

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But the mandate of the next regional and departmental councillors, who will be definitively elected this Sunday, June 27 and installed on July 2, will not last six years: it will be a little longer. Their mandate will end in March 2028: it will therefore last six years and nine months. "The end of the mandate, first envisaged in December 2027, is set for March 2028", reports the site vie-publique.com.

Too close to the presidential and legislative elections

The goal? “Avoid too close proximity to the presidential and legislative elections of April-May and June 2027”, further indicates the site. Indeed, the presidential election and the legislative elections take place every five years: the next will take place in 2022, then in 2027.

Furthermore, the mandate of the regional councilors, which is coming to an end, did not really last six years either: it was a little shorter. The last elections took place in December 2015, to take account of the creation of new regions (which had gone from 22 to 13 in mainland France).

And, "to allow the 2021 regional elections to be organized again in March, it was planned that the term of office of the regional councilors elected in December 2015 be reduced by nine months", and therefore last 5 years and 3 month. Finally, thanks to the health crisis, the mandate of the regional advisers was extended by three months.

On the other hand, the departmental councilors had a more or less "normal" mandate which lasted six years and three months (again extended because of the health crisis), since the last elections had taken place in March 2015, and that, for the first time, the general councilors had become departmental councilors and had been entirely renewed.