2017 French Presidential Elections - A Petition Calls on former US President Barack Obama to run for office

France goes to the polls on April 23,2017 in the first round of the presidential election. 

If no candidate wins at least 50 per cent of the vote, the top two candidates go forward to a second round on May 07,2017

 Whoever wins that round is elected president.

Barack Obama is only a month into his retirement from what was possibly the world's most stressful job. But some voters in France want the former US President to run for office - in France. Called "Obama17," the campaign's posters have sprung up across Paris, urging people to visit a website and sign a petition to persuade him to run. 

The site explains: "At a time when France is about to vote massively for the extreme right, we can still give a lesson of democracy to the planet by electing a French president, a foreigner."

The goal is to get 1 million people to sign the petition by March 15. Over 27,000 people are reported to have already signed it.