Why in the world would anyone feel that a system that gets 82% of the people to vote is an outdated system? We could only dream of such a great voter turnout.
I must say, in the last French presidential primaries when LePen made such a good showing, it certainly looked like something was wrong with the system. However, it seems to have galvanized the voters to make sure LePen did not take office.
The good side was that the voter turnout was excellent and LePen did not gain office. The bad side was that Chirac really did not have a valid opponent. To work, an election needs at least two candidates who have something positive to offer the electorate. Then each can work to show what it is they can do. The electorate decides what it wants by voting. When the entire country is voting against one candidate because of his reactionary platform, the electorate loses. Sure they can vote against him, but the idea of an election is to vote FOR someone, not against someone.
Our last California election (the infamous recall) had a 29% voter turnout. You can hardly call that a majority win. 71% of the voters were not represented . . . by their own choosing. Very sad!