Surveys show French presidential election close three horse race
21/3/2007 16:34
Twelve candidates will contest France's presidential election next month,
and recent survey results indicated the election will be a close three horse
race between right-wing favorite Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist Segolene Royal and
centrist Francois Bayrou.
A poll by the LH2 agency released Tuesday showed
Sarkozy, the interior minister, maintains a narrow lead over Royal and Bayrou
with 29 percent support. Royal had 26 percent and Bayrou got 22 percent.
With
the margin of error of three percentage points taken into account, the survey
results indicated the race is still close.
An Ipsos poll released Monday
showed Sarkozy with 29.5 percent, Royal with 25 percent and Bayrou with 21
percent. The margin of error was 3-4 percent.
It is widely believed that the
three candidates have the greatest opportunity to enter the second round of the
presidential election.
The first round of the election will take place on
April 22. A second round is set for May 6 between the two top candidates, if no
one is expected to win an outright majority in the first round.
Sarkozy, of
the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, has won support of
traditional right-wing voters after President Jacques Chirac announced his
decision not to run for this year's election.
The interior minister, who has
taken measures to crack down on illegal immigration and youth crime, has won a
stable rise in voters' support and is believed to have a good opportunity to
enter the second round.
If elected president, Sarkozy said his overriding
objective would be to guarantee the "security and independence" of France,
followed by that of its friends and allies in the face of major challenges such
as nuclear proliferation, terrorism, as well as natural and humanitarian
crises.
Royal, the candidate of the main opposition Socialist Party who once
served as an adviser to late president Francois Mitterrand, wants to become
France's first woman president.
She said France is in the throes of a "crisis
of democracy" and in need of "profound change", and calls for building a
"fairer" society and strengthening participation of common people in political
decision-making. Her 100-point presidential program proposes hiking government
spending for social programs.
Francois Bayrou has become a dark horse in
recent polls as his standpoint of breaching the left-right divide and building a
joint government has won support of voters who are dissatisfied with the current
situation.
As a teacher who takes pride in his rural roots, Bayrou is
proposing a constitutional ban on budget deficits and cuts in social charges to
encourage more jobs.
Bayrou also reached out to older voters with a pledge
for pension reform and greater state aid for the elderly.
Far-right leader
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who stunned France by making it into a runoff with President
Jacques Chirac in 2002, still has influence in a certain group of voters with
his standpoint of rejecting immigration and European integration. An Ipsos poll
released Monday showed Le Pen got 12 percent of the support.
In the last
election in 2002, a record 16 candidates qualified to stand in the first round
-- many of them on the left, which the Socialists said diluted support for their
candidate, enabling Le Pen to qualify for the run-off.
On the list of
presidential candidates announced on Monday, most are believed to have no hope
to win the vote, but still use the chance to publicize their political views.
All candidates are targeting a large number of undecided voters, uncertain about
what they want for France's future after 12 years of rule by President Jacques
Chirac.
On the recommendation of the superior audio-visual council,
candidates and their supporters must be accorded equal time by radio and
television stations after the official presidential candidates list is
published.
Xinhua
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