article_snippet: Guargaule's Mayor Charles Antoine Casanova counts votes during the first round of regional elections .
article_snippet: Election officials in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire count votes for the country's departments, or administrative regions .
article_snippet: At stake were 101 departments - or administrative regions - and 4,100 regional government seats.
article_snippet: Hollande casts Hollande vote in the elections for local councils across France .
article_snippet: Hollande today acknowledged that the key issues of the elections for local councils across France would be abstention 'and the score of the National Front' Today, FN candidates were fielded in 1,909 out of a total of 2,054 constituencies for the first round of voting.
article_snippet: the first round of voting is next Sunday.
article_snippet: For the first time, candidates appeared on ballots in pairs - one male, one female - to ensure that 50 percent of council members will be women.
article_snippet: Those that voted today was estimated at just under 43 per cent of all those eligible - a figure which is up almost six points from the cantonal elections of 2011.
highlights_snippet: today's French local elections will determine political makeup of 2,000 local councils .