Sarkozy ahead on eve of French election

Sarkozy ahead on eve of French election

The last opinion polls issued before a media and campaign blackout at midnight on Friday showed Sarkozy ahead of Royal in second place, but far short of the absolute majority needed to win outright. They are likely to contest a run-off on May 6.

But with opinion polls suggesting up to a third of France's 44.5 million voters have not made a final decision yet, third-placed centrist Francois Bayrou and veteran far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen have not given up hope.

Le Pen shocked France in the last election in 2002 by eliminating Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin in the first round and going through to a run-off which he lost to Jacques Chirac, who is not seeking a third term.

"France wants a change of air," left-wing newspaper Liberation said in an editorial on Saturday.

The twelve candidates include hard-left Trotskyists, environmentalists, a hunting and fishing advocate and two far-right nationalists.

Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, promises to crack down on crime and improve life for a "silent majority" of hard-working French. Royal, who wants to be France's first woman president, has pledged to re-unite a divided nation.

Voting begins in mainland France at 8.00 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday and ends at 8.00 p.m. French nationals in overseas departments in the Americas and in French Polynesia were voting on Saturday in a move to encourage a high turnout.

With election appearances and opinion polls now banned, newspapers devoted pages of space to looking back on a campaign that focused on fears over jobs and security and on the personalities of the main candidates.

Despite long careers in politics, both Royal and Sarkozy have campaigned as outsiders to the hidebound system of French government. Both are promising renewal after 74-year-old Chirac's 12 years as president.

Sarkozy, 52, a former interior and finance minister, pleased many voters with a tough response to riots in deprived suburban housing estates in 2005. He supports the free market but as finance minister opposed the takeover of major French firms.

His combative and hyperactive character has worried some voters. Royal, 53, has painted him as a dangerous extremist, helping push up her poll ratings at the end of campaigning.

But her campaign stuttered at times, and included several gaffes, leaving some voters deriding her glamorous image and questioning her competence to lead the world's fifth-largest economy and a nuclear power.

She has combined left-wing economic policy with conservative social ideas, but unsettled many Socialists with proposals such as sending young offenders to boot camps and suggesting people keep flags at home to display on balconies on national holidays.

The lack of confidence in the two frontrunners and a system which some people feel favors the established political parties could allow Bayrou to reach the second round.

Bayrou, 55, promises to overcome the traditional left-right divide of French politics, and pledges to cut the public debt and help small business.

The close election has caused wide interest following the shock of 2002, when record abstentions helped Le Pen, and since France's rejection of the European Union constitution in 2005. Voter registrations have risen by 4.2 percent, the sharpest rise since 1981.