Would Bayrou had been the Condorcet winner?

Condorcet method - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Condorcet method is any election method that elects the candidate that would win by majority rule in all pairings against the other candidates, whenever one of the candidates has that property

While not the strict definition an approxiamtion is that the least disliked candidate wins. Wheter this is good depends (imho) on what you are electing.

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Indeed -- in a certain number of cases, it might, for example, enable a FDG or EELV candidate to qualify for the second round, and/or finish ahead of the PS candidate, if electors exchanged second preferences. In practice, I suspect, there would be too much dispersal of preferences. Unless Australian-style how-to-vote instructions were issued by parties. But that's anti-democratic.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

But then it would have to be put in place despite Socialist Party reluctance.

It doesn't seem that the Green Party or the Radicals are in a position to make many demands of the PS, if they are dependent upon an electoral coalition with the PS for their representation in parliament.

So it would come down to whether the FDG is required to form a majority, and what price in electoral reform the FDG could extract.

MMP on whatever numbers on offer would seem to be the first best outcome for the FDG ~ any other electoral reform would be a consolation prize if MMP is out of reach.

Of all the electoral reforms ~ preferential voting, multi-member STV, MMP ~ while second preference wouldn't have as dramatic an impact, it also comes with the least likelihood of increasing FN representation, so long as the FN remains relatively second preference toxic. However, that likelihood would have been even lower before Sarkozy's efforts to woo the FN electorate.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.