PARIS: It is a “revolutionary” step that France has just taken in becoming the first country in the world to make use of the Internet to vote for members of a national parliament, said French State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Renaud Muselier.

And given the successful unrolling of the event, that took place on June 1, France will now be able to consider using the Internet for its national elections, perhaps indeed next year’s vote for the European Parliament, he says. “First of all, naturally,” he says, “we’ll have to hold a debate on the issue. That’s inevitable.”

The vote in question concerned the two million French expatriates who were being asked to elect the twelve senators who will represent their interests in the upper chamber of the French parliament.

Given the importance in the vote of French expatriates who live in the United States, Mr Muselier decided to make use of France’s well-implanted ten consulates to organise the vote-by-Internet.