Charles de Gaulle
Gaullist candidacy, supported by UNR
78.51%
62,394 electoral-college votes
Elected in this single roundHistorical exception / 21 December 1958
1958
The electoral college voted.
The first presidential election of the Fifth Republic
This was an indirect election by an electoral college, not a nationwide popular ballot. De Gaulle won an absolute majority in one round. There was no runoff. The electors’ participation rate must not be read as turnout among French citizens.
Georges Marrane
Parti communiste français
13.03%
10,355 electoral-college votes
Albert Châtelet
Union des forces démocratiques
8.46%
6,721 electoral-college votes
Registered electors 81,764
Participating electors 81,290 · 99.42%
Valid votes 79,470
Votes blancs + invalid 1,820 · 2.24% of ballots cast
Absent electors 474
How this election differed
The original 1958 Constitution provided for election by a college including parliamentarians and representatives of local authorities. The 1962 reform introduced direct universal suffrage; the first presidential election using it took place in 1965. This page is excluded from the normal direct-election comparison series and from earlier-direct-election party histories.
All candidate percentages use valid electoral-college votes. The combined votes blancs and invalid count is derived as ballots cast minus valid votes. No separate breakdown is invented.
Gaullist/UNR and PCF colors follow the shared registry. Châtelet’s Union des forces démocratiques (UFD) was not the UDF founded in 1978.
Teaching and learning
Intended audience: Undergraduate students in French studies, history, political science and related fields; independent adult learners.
Suggested uses: Guided data interpretation, election comparison and evidence-based discussion.
After using this resource, learners should be able to:
- Interpret the election results, turnout figures and ballot statistics presented in this resource.
- Identify the election, round, geographic scope and denominator before comparing figures.
- Distinguish descriptive patterns in the data from claims about individual voting motives.
Use the objectives that correspond to the material available on this page. Collection pages provide entry points to individual resources; unfinished or unavailable material is not a completed learning activity.
Original materials © Dr. Amine Zidouh / French Politics, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 unless otherwise indicated. When sharing or reproducing covered material, credit Dr. Amine Zidouh and French Politics, link to the source and license, and identify changes. Images, protest signs, artworks and other third-party materials are excluded. See Rights, Credits & Educational Reuse for scope, attribution and the as-is disclaimer.