Candidates for the Presidency must obtain 500 sponsoring signatures of elected officials from at least 30 departments or overseas territories.
The post is directly elected in a two-stage voting system. A candidate who receives more than 50% of the vote in the first round is elected. However, if no candidate receives 50%, there is a second round which is a run-off between the two candidates who secured the most votes in the first round.
The term is five years, a reduction from the previous seven years. A President can seek a second term and normally secures it, but two President of the Fifth Republic have failed a re-election bid: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Nicolas Sarkozy.