French presidential vote sees lowest turnout in 20 years

Early turnout in the first round of voting for a French president was the lowest in two decades.

As of noon, 21% of France’s 40 million eligible voters had gone to the polls - the lowest midday turnout for a first-round presidential election in the last two decades.

In the last election in 1995, 22.5% of voters had cast ballots by noon.

A record number of candidates and widespread apathy and discontent have threatened to damage the election prospects of rivals President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

Voter surveys have long predicted Chirac and Jospin would be the two top finishers in the first round, qualifying for a May 5 runoff. But both candidates may find they need to cut distasteful deals with political foes or fringe candidates eliminated in the first round in order to win the runoff.

Polls opened Sunday at 8am and were to start closing at 6pm (1700 Irish time).

In 1988, the voter participation level was 27% and in 1981, 26%.

Throughout the four-month campaign, Chirac and Jospin fought among a crowded field of 16 candidates for the attention of uninterested voters who complained the two men had the same old political ideas.

Lack of enthusiasm for the main candidates helped fuel the rise of extremists - one could even emerge as a surprise power broker in the second round.

Among them are Arlette Laguiller of the hard-left Worker’s Struggle and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the far-right National Front.

Coming from opposites of the political spectrum, Laguiller and Le Pen have been battling in the polls for third place.

Laguiller has refused to endorse any other candidate in the run-off, and mainstream leftists are worried her supporters may refuse to vote on May 5 instead of supporting Jospin. On the right, Le Pen, who has 14% support in recent polls, is no fan of the conservative French president Le Pen recently went on national television and called Chirac ‘‘not only a thief but also a liar.’’

In the last election, in 1995, the Socialists chose Jospin to oppose Chirac only after five others had to drop out for different reasons. Jospin ran well, losing a close race in the second round that drew 80 percent of voters.

This time around, however, the electorate is bored and pollsters predict that up to one-third of them could stay away from the ballot box. Political scandals are partly to blame for the apathy, according to experts and opinion polls.

Corruption cases have tarnished Chirac’s Rally for the Republic, or RPR, and Jospin’s Socialists. Jospin, 64, himself has been tainted by revelations he flirted with Trotskyism - an extreme far-left ideology - in his youth and then lied about it.

Chirac, 69, currently protected by presidential immunity, risks facing judicial officials should he lose the election. Investigating judges want to question him in several corruption scandals, some dating to his 1977-95 tenure as Paris mayor.

Another indication of the discontent with the front-runners is the number of candidates who sprang seemingly from nowhere and managed to get the obligatory 500 endorsements from elected officials needed to run.