French presidential hopefuls race against deadline

Presidential hopefuls raced against deadline of this evening to gather and file the 500 endorsements they need to run for France’s highest office.

Big-party contenders – Socialist Segolene Royal, Nicolas Sarkozy of the governing right, and Francois Bayrou in the middle ground – had no trouble.

But smaller candidates had to pour energy and resources into finding enough mayors or other elected officials to sign off on their candidacies.

Anti-globalization activist Jose Bove was eight signatures short a few hours before the 6pm (5pm Irish time) deadline, his campaign said. Bove said his supporters were staking out city halls to get mayors to sign.

Mailman Olivier Besancenot, of the far-left Revolutionary Communist League, said he barely scraped together the signatures. He accused the major parties of trying to block his candidacy by pressuring mayors not to support him.

Detractors complain the endorsement system is an unfair burden on the little guys. Besancenot said his supporters had to canvass more then 17,000 mayors to get 530 signatures.

“It is a great relief and also a source of great pride,” Besancenot told TF1 television. He said he had managed to “open the doors the institutionalised parties tried to close”.

A record 16 candidates ran in the last presidential election in 2002.