One million voters turn out for French Socialist presidential primary

AFP - French left-wing voters on Sunday held their first ever US-style primary to choose the Socialists' candidate to take on an increasingly vulnerable Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's presidential election.

Opinion polls put former party leader Francois Hollande at the head of six candidates in the vote, open for the first time to any self-declared left-winger on the electoral roll who pays a nominal one-euro fee.

IN PICTURES: French Socialist party opens doors to public Security checks at the gates to the historic building in central Paris. Photo: Mehdi Chebil/FRANCE 24. A visitor admires a portrait of François Mitterrand, former Socialist leader and France's longest-serving president. The building became the party headquarters just before he was elected to power in 1981. Photo: Mehdi Chebil/FRANCE 24. Although the red banner reads "All of France can vote to choose the Socialist nominee" in the upcoming primary, this is not strictly true. Each voter must swear allegiance to the left and pay a euro. Photo: Mehdi Chebil/FRANCE 24. Sylvaine paid a visit but said she would not vote in the upcoming primary, which she described as “a very American concept that doesn’t suit our culture”. Photo: Mehdi Chebil/FRANCE 24. A member of staff shows Robert, a visitor from outside Paris, how to follow the party on Facebook. "I came to find out where I need to go to vote in the primary," he says. "Now, I'm a friend of the Socialist Party on Facebook!" Photo: Mehdi Chebil/FRANCE 24. Alexandra, a young supporter, places her ballot in the pretend vote. “We came to show our support,” she says. “We're going to need a lot of that in 2012." The presidential election takes place in May of next year. Photo: Mehdi Chebil/FRANCE 24. The fake ballot box of the day encourages visitors to vote in the real primary, set for October 9-16. Photo: Mehdi Chebil/FRANCE 24.

The Socialist Party official said that they had reached their own target of one million votes cast before the end of the afternoon, already branding the election a great success.

Interim Socialist Party leader Harlem Desir said the turnout was proof of "a great chain of citizens forming to say 'no' to Nicolas Sarkozy and to say 'yes' to change next spring".

After five years in office, Sarkozy's popularity has been hit hard by the sputtering economy, high unemployment and a series of scandals involving close aides.

The winner will in April 2012 take on embattled conservative Sarkozy, with the resurgent left intent on entering the Elysee palace for the first time since France's longest-serving president Francois Mitterand left in 1995 after 14 years.

The website for finding one of the around 10,000 polling stations crashed briefly in the morning, with a simplified version of the site back online later Sunday.

The latest IFOP poll predicted that Hollande would win Sunday's vote with 43 percent. Next is Martine Aubry, a former labour minister and creator of France's popular 35-hour working week, tipped to win 28 percent of votes.

In the likely event that no candidate receives an absolute majority in Sunday's first-round vote, a second run-off round will be held October 16.

Either Hollande, 57, or Aubry, 61, would beat Sarkozy in next year's presidential vote, opinion polls say, with the Socialists having last month taken control of the Senate for the first time in decades.

Hollande has benefited greatly from the spectacular collapse of former IMF chief and Socialist presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn's political career after he was charged with the attempted rape of a New Yok hotel maid.

The US case against him collapsed, but Strauss-Kahn's long-planned campaign was sunk, and Hollande's equal careful preparation allowed him to fill the gap, despite criticism he lacks vital ministerial experience for France's top job.

Since last year, the former Socialist general secretary has been on the trail, meeting voters, losing 10 kilos (22 pounds) of unpresidential body fat and shaking off an image as a jovial but uninspiring party apparatchik.

Strauss-Kahn voted at the town hall in Sarcelles, north of Paris, for Aubry, with whom he revealed a few weeks ago he had a non-aggression pact for the presidential election.

The vote is the climax of three months of campaigning enlivened by three unprecedented televised debates between the six candidates that were watched by millions.

"I have left-wing views and I like the fact that I'm asked my opinion," said Salima, 46, as she voted in the Paris suburb of Pantin.

"The primary is innovative and the debates between candidates enlightened me even if I already had an idea about who I'd vote for," she said.

Previous Socialist presidential campaigns have been damaged by infighting, and Sunday's popular vote should lend both popular legitimacy and unified party support to the 2012 candidate.

Segolene Royale, 58, the Socialists' defeated candidate in 2007 and Hollande's former life partner with whom she has four children, is also in the running.

The other candidates are Manuel Valls, 49, a free-market pragmatist from the Socialists' right, Arnaud Montebourg, 48, who has campaigned on a protectionist ticket, and Jean-Michel Baylet, 64.

Baylet heads the small, centrist Radical Party of the Left, and is the only non-Socialist in the race.

Polls in Sunday's vote will close at 7:00 pm (1700 GMT).