Only 1% of France’s Turks to back Sarkozy for president

PanARMENIAN.Net - French presidential candidates marked a one day truce Saturday, April 21 on the eve of voting in a first-round poll to whittle the ten-strong field down to two frontrunners, AFP reports.

French election rules outlaw both campaigning and opinion polling on the last day of the race, but Socialist challenger Francois Hollande went into the weekend favorite to oust right-wing incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

The two 57-year-old political veterans are expected to win the two spots in the May 6 run-off, and polls suggest that the left-winger will comfortably win the battle to become one of the most powerful leaders in the world.

More than 400 opinion polls have been conducted during the campaign, a third more than in the last race in 2007, and the vast majority tell the same story.

Hollande is expected to come in first place in the first round, closely followed by Sarkozy, so both ought to qualify for the run-off.

Three more candidates could break into double figures in percentage terms, far-right flagbearer Marine Le Pen, hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon and veteran centrist Francois Bayrou.

Meanwhile, according to Today’s Zaman, France’s Turkish citizens are expected to vote for left-winger candidates following the bill on criminalization of the Armenian Genocide denial in the country, which was, however, turned down by the Constitutional Council after approval by the parliament.

According to a study led by Turkey’s University of Hacettepe before the elections in France, 77% of Turkish voters are planning to vote for Hollande in the first round. François Bayrou is one of the candidates that will receive support according to the results of the study. President Sarkozy had only 1% support.