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French Socialists face electoral rout

Vaiju Naravane

Paris: French voters appear to be suffering from election fatigue. Voter participation for the second and final round of the legislative poll here was not much better than the 60 per cent that marked the first round of polling on June 10.

This is the fourth time the French have been called out to vote in the past six weeks — including twice for the Presidential election that brought Nicolas Sarkozy to power in May. They turned out en masse to choose their President with the voter participation as high as 85 per cent in May.

Voter apathy may further penalise the French Left, which fared poorly in the first round.

Mr. Sarkozy is expected to strengthen his position with a thumping victory. A hundred and nine candidates from his conservative UMP party were elected in the first round as against two for the Socialists.

Segolene Royal, who tried to wrest the leadership of the Socialist Party after her electoral defeat in the presidential poll in May, has been repeatedly snubbed by party stalwarts.

Indeed, the Socialists' worst enemy appears to be themselves. They have indulged in so much bickering and in-fighting that it has completely demoralised the rank and file of the party.

Close race

The Socialists currently hold 159 seats in Parliament and party leader, Francois Hollande, who is also Ms. Royal's partner, said candidates were locked in tight races in half of those seats.

"In 80 seats it's a question of a few hundred votes either way, so a strong turnout for us can make all the difference," Mr. Hollande said after casting his vote in his southern constituency of Tulle. The Socialists have warned that a massive parliamentary majority would lead to a dangerous concentration of powers in the hands of Mr. Sarkozy who was elected to a five-year term. Polls are predicting a sweeping victory for UMP, which is on course to extend its current majority of 359 seats in the 577-member National Assembly.

Mr. Sarkozy (52), son of a Hungarian immigrant, has appointed a broad-based Government in which prominent Leftist Bernard Kouchner was named Foreign Minister and the first woman of north African origin, Rachida Dati, was named Justice Minister. The Communist Party is expected to lose several of its current 21 seats and will not have enough to form a parliamentary bloc.

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