France has a system where presidential elections are decided on a first past the post (FPTP) electoral arrangement, whereby if no candidate wins 50% in the first round (someone winning in the 1st round has never happened before), a second round with the two best performers is run a few weeks after.
Why does France use this system, especially in a multi-tendency and increasingly polarised political society? For example, countries such as, say, Australia use a preference-based system (in their case, a Single Transferable Vote approach) where candidates on a ballot are ranked based on the individual voter's preference (e.g. 1st preference for Red Party, 2nd for Orange Party, 3rd for Yellow, until at least the minimum amount of preferences listed as per required by the ballot paper).
