For the 2026 municipal elections, 75 French communes have registered no candidacies, preventing any vote on March 15 and 22. These municipalities will come under special delegation pending new elections. This issue mainly affects small communes, with numbers stable compared to previous polls.
Candidacies for the first round of the municipal elections have been filed, but 75 of France's 34,953 communes have no lists. With no vote possible on March 15 and 22, these local entities will automatically enter a special delegation regime, managed by the state until a new poll is organized.
This figure remains relatively stable: 64 communes were affected in 2014 and 106 in 2020. All impacted communes have fewer than 1,500 inhabitants, and three-quarters have under 500. Only two had faced this in 2020: Dompierre-les-Tilleuls in Doubs (291 inhabitants) and Orbigny-au-Mont in Haute-Marne (138 inhabitants). The most affected areas include French Polynesia with 7 communes, as well as Haute-Saône and Doubs with 5 each.
The lack of interest in the mayoral role is often linked to growing administrative and financial burdens. Additionally, the 2025 reform on voting methods now requires complete and gender-parity lists in all communes, a rule previously limited to those over 1,000 inhabitants. Political scientist Romain Pasquier, research director at CNRS, notes that this reform may have contributed to the challenge. “The presented lists must now be complete and respect parity across all communes,” he explains.
