France goes to the polls

After a two-week campaign that mobilised France, conservative President Jacques Chirac today appeared likely to win his re-election bid against far-right contender Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Yesterday French newspapers urged readers to support Mr Chirac against Mr Le Pen, leader of the National Front party. Polls and political observers indicated Mr Chirac’s victory was virtually in hand.

Mr Le Pen shocked France and confounded pollsters on April 21 by coming in second in a record field of 16 candidates - notably Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

His success fuelled a wave of popular protests across France. Anti-Le Pen marchers flooded the streets nearly every day after his first-round showing, culminating in a gigantic march by more than a million people on the May Day holiday.

The left-leaning newspaper Liberation yesterday published a front-page picture of a Chirac ballot entering a ballot box. Over it was an enormous one-word headline: ‘‘Oui!’’ After Le Pen’s first-round showing, the paper had run a picture of him covered by a huge ‘‘Non’’.

In an editorial, the daily newspaper La Montagne of the central French city of Clermont-Ferrand endorsed Mr Chirac, saying today’s election was about ‘‘assuring the preservation of our liberties, of the Republic and of serene democracy’’.

The protests were expected to continue all the way to the ballot box. Some leftists were so disgruntled about having to vote for Mr Chirac that they planned to put on gloves to handle the ballot.

On Friday, Mr Le Pen predicted fraud in the election. He held up a white ballot for Mr Chirac and one for himself, which appeared slightly less white. He said the difference was an attempt to subliminally turn voters against him.

‘‘We are going to witness an enormous enterprise of fraud,’’ he told reporters.

Mr Le Pen, 73, says that if elected he will deport all illegal immigrants and assure French citizens priority in jobs, housing and social benefits. He wants to pull France out of the European Union and restore the franc as its currency.

A poll published Friday in daily Le Figaro indicated that Mr Chirac would win 75% to 82% of the vote, compared to 18% to 25% for Mr Le Pen. The survey of 1,012 registered voters was conducted between April 30 and May 2 by the Ipsos polling agency.