French legislative election, 1791

French legislative election, 1791

29 August and 5 September 1791 1792 →
All 745 seats to the Legislative Assembly
First party Second party Third party   Leader Jean Bigot de Préameneu Jacques Claude Beugnot Jacques Pierre Brissot Party Constitutional Feuillant Jacobin Leader's seat Seine Seine-Inférieure Seine Seats won 345 264 136 Popular vote 1,978,000 1,505,000 774,000 Percentage 46.3% 35.4% 18.3%
Composition of the Legislative Assembly
Elected President of the Assembly Claude-Emmanuel de Pastoret Constitutional

Claude-Emmanuel de Pastoret
Constitutional

French legislative elections were held in September 1791 to elect the Legislative Assembly and was the first ever French election. However, only citizens paying taxes were allowed to vote. A plurality of the elected candidates were independents, but almost all were affiliated with the three political factions emerging in the new legislative assembly; the Marais, the Feuillants and the Jacobins (Montagnards, since they occupied the most elevated in the assembly). The factions were only vaguely affiliated to an organized program. The Feuillants did, however, support a constitutional monarchy, the Girondists a moderate republican policy and the Cordeliers a radical democratic constitution, supported by the lower classes. These factions preceded the later dominant factions: the Jacobin, the Girondists and the Marais party, consisting mainly of moderates.