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France goes to polls today

Hollande favourite as Sarkozy vows surprise

AFP, Paris
France held its breath yesterday on the eve of a presidential election that Socialist Francois Hollande was predicted to win despite incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy closing the gap after wooing the far-right.
Political speeches and new opinion polls have been banned since a particularly ferocious campaign ended on Friday night, but the last
poll published ahead of the deadline forecast a 52-48 percent win for Hollande.
The Ifop-Fiducial poll said Sarkozy has clawed back six percentage points of voter intentions since the end of last week as he went all-out to enchant those who voted for far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the first round.
With the Socialist's lead the narrowest since campaigning began, Sarkozy has vowed a surprise, while Hollande has stressed that nothing can be assumed about a first Socialist presi-
dential victory in over a quarter century.
French overseas territories were voting yesterday, before the mass of some 46 million voters goes to the polls on Sunday.
Hollande yesterday was spending with his partner Valerie Trierwiler in his political heartland Tulle in central France, while Sarkozy was with his wife, former supermodel Carla Bruni, and their baby daughter Giulia.
Hollande won the April 22 first round with 28.63 percent of the votes to
Sarkozy's 27.18 percent, and both candidates have been fighting for the votes of those whose candidates failed to make the run-off.
Le Pen, who won almost 18 percent in the first round, has said she will cast a blank ballot, and observers expect many of her supporters to do the same.
Ifop has forecast however that 55 percent of her voters would back Sarkozy and 19 percent Hollande.
Meanwhile, 84 percent of those who voted for the Communist-backed Left Front candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round — 11 percent of votes — said they would vote for Hollande.
Fears over low economic growth, rising joblessness and European Union-imposed austerity measures have worked in favour of the Socialists.
Many voters also disapprove of Sarkozy's flashy style during his five-year term, welcoming Hollande's vows to be a "normal president."