Who will be the next French president?

French people are about to elect their new president, a process which implies a certain number of rules.

Let's start with the beginning: the candidate.

To run for the presidential election, one must be French - it seems obvious- and 23 years-old at least.

He or she also has to be allowed to use his/her civic rights.

A last and very important point: the candidate needs to have acquired the signatures of 500 mayors, as a sign of support.

Those supports are so precious that a mayor put his signature for auction on internet!

The deadline for gathering the signatures was March, 16.

Twelve people are now officially candidates:

Nicolas Sarkozy from the UMP (Conservative party)

Sgolne Royal from the PS (Socialist party)

Franois Bayrou from the UDF (center)

Jean-Marie Le Pen from the National Front (extreme right)

Olivier Besancenot from the Revolutionary Communist League

Arlette Laguiller from the Working-class party

Jos Bov, an anti-globalization activist

Marie-George Buffet from the Communist party

Grard Schivardi who wants to be the candidate of the mayors,

Dominique Voynet from the Green party

Philippe de Villiers, another candidate from the extreme right

Frdric Nihous, who wants to represent anglers and hunters

The first round will happen on April, 22.

Each French person aged 18 years at least and who registered the electoral roll at the city hall can vote and choose among this large scope of ideas.

If no candidate gets the absolute majority, there will be another round, on May, 6.

For now, according to opinion polls, the two favourite candidates are Nicolas Sarkozy and, for the first time in the French history, a woman, Sgolne Royal.

No one can predict the result since there are 1.8 millions more people who are registered on the electoral roll compared with 2006.

This increase is partly due to the great number of young people in the poor areas who registered to express their opinion.

The rise can also be explained by the previous election.

In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen, from the extreme right, suprised everyone by qualifying for the second round.

This day is still remembered as a very sad one in France.

As a consequence, many people will now vote in order to prevent it from happening again.