'Uninspired' French go to the polls

Voters were making a preliminary choice today between France’s invigorated conservatives and its squabbling leftists amid signs the apathy that helped an extremist qualify for a presidential run-off last month might be returning.

Four hours after the polls opened, at noon local time (11am Irish time), 19.7% of eligible voters had cast ballots, the Interior Ministry said. It compared with 22.7% participation at the same time in the first round of the 1997 legislative race.

A key question in the election was whether voter apathy would again rear its head.

‘‘People don’t seem to be attaching a lot of importance to this vote,’’ said teacher Guy Maignan, 40, as he left a polling station in a working-class district of Paris.

Conservative President Jacques Chirac cast his ballot this morning in the central Correze region. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin voted in the nearby Poitou region.

The first round will be followed by a second and decisive round a week later. Polls opened at 8am (7am Irish time) and were closing in major cities at 8pm (7pm Irish time)

In the first round of the presidential election in March, voter indifference led to a record-low turnout, which helped extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen qualify for the runoff against conservative Chirac.

Millions mobilised for the second round two weeks later, sweeping Chirac back into office with a record 82% of the vote.

But ahead of the legislative race, media predictions were that apathy might set in again especially after the emotional presidential race only a month ago.

‘‘I’m hoping people will turn out massively today like they did in the second round of the presidential race, but I’m afraid people have short memories,’’ said voter Patricia Dardaine, 33.

In cafes and bistros, it appeared many French had their minds on the poor performance of Les Bleus the defending World Cup champions who are on the cusp of elimination after failing to win their first two matches.

Chirac’s conservatives have been emboldened by recent opinion polls showing they are likely to win a majority of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, Parliament’s lower house. All those seats are up for grabs.

The left, which ran the government for most of the last five years under Socialist leadership, is fighting for its life on the national political scene. The Socialists have been struggling ever since Lionel Jospin, the former prime minister, quit politics early last month after his humiliating loss to Le Pen in the first round of the presidential race.

Chirac appointed little-known former businessman Raffarin, a conservative, to take over as prime minister and voter surveys indicate that he enjoys broad support.

But many fear Le Pen’s National Front could play the arbiter in the legislative race by tempting

mainstream right or left candidates to strike deals with the party in order to win in the second round.

‘‘I think the Front should be able to appear as the first party of France,’’ Le Pen told reporters at a polling station in suburban Paris. ‘‘In any case, it’s the grace that I wish for us and for France.’’

If no single candidate wins more than half of the votes in a district, a second-round will be

scheduled. To qualify, candidates must be one of the top two vote-getters or win at least 12.5 percent of the first-round vote.

There were an average of 14.6 candidates per region for the first round balloting a record suggesting that votes could be widely dispersed.