Sunday, April 22, 2007
Very interesting, and not at all expected just weeks ago. Nicolas Sarkozy will face his Socialist rival Segolene Royal in a run-off, and seems to be leading in that race as well: Sarkozy, Royal in presidential runoff
Right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist rival Segolene Royal will face each other in a presidential run-off after they came through a first-round vote on Sunday, preliminary results showed.
According to numbers from the French Interior Ministry, Sarkozy earned 30.46 percent of the votes, while Royal won 24.41 percent.
Because of the close margin, they will face a run-off on May 6.
Centrist Francois Bayrou, one of four main contenders, won 18.28 percent of the votes while far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen took 11.46 percent, according to the ministry...
To be more accurate, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, the two top scorers in the 1st round of the French presidential election, garnered 31.11% and 25.83% of the French votes respectively.
They now have 11 days to convince French voters to elect them president of the Republic.
A televised debate on 2nd May has been set between the protagonists. Negotiations between key men of the right-wing UMP and left-wing Socialist Party are underway to outline the debate's 'rules of engagement'.
The runoff election is on 6th May.
It is my belief that Nicolas Sarkozy will succeed President Chirac (and rightly so) but only by a very, very slim margin.
I wish the Banlieus would erupt before the run-off.