Weird. What creates the large differences in neighboring communes?
Sorry for getting back to you that late. I needed to ask a local myself to be sure of the facts (who lives in the weirdest constituency of the region, Haute-Corse 2nd).
People in Corse vote based on person, not candidate. A Communist official could very well support the UMP candidate, and a UMP official could very well support the leftie candidate. Because the candidate is their cousin, or because they hate the candidate put up by their party.
Then, local villages are dominated by mayors who often make deals with the incumbent (in general elections). If the mayor drives everybody to the polls, then he gets funding. If he doesn't, then he gets 0 Euros. People vote based on what the mayor tells them, because he directly relates their vote for the incumbent to the installation of the street lamp in front of their house that hasn't been done in 25 years.
Apart from that, people vote because the incumbent is in their family, because he's nice, because he did this and that for them, because the great-grandfather of the incumbent (who was most likely a deputy in the 1800s for the same seat) did this and that and you need to pay back his great-grandson.
Or, you don't vote for them because the incumbent is from your rival clan, because his great-grandfather was mad with your great-grandfather, because they're not friends, because the mayor hates the incumbent and wants him to lose.
My contact in Haute-Corse told me about a local mayor and councilor who campaigned from the UMP candidate against the PRG incumbent Paul Giacobbi (who is the son of a Senator, who himself was the son of another Senator pre-war) in June 2007. In March 2008, he was re-elected and joined the PRG majority led by... Paul Giacobbi.
