Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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May 5, 2007

Polls Predict Big Sarkozy Win in French Presidential Runoff
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1759981:A6F02AD83191E160834E2EBBCF959AEB9574F7DCC14957C0 Royal's support
flagged since Wednesday's televised debate with Sarkozy





French citizens line up to vote in the presidential election in France
at a polling station set up at the French Embassy in Washington, 5 May
2007Final polls ahead of Sunday's runoff presidential election in
France indicate that former interior minister Nicholas Sarkozy is set
to score a big victory over his Socialist Party rival Segolene Royal.

Poll results published just before the mandatory end of campaigning
Saturday showed that the center-right candidate Sarkozy could win the
runoff by about nine percentage points.

Royal's support has flagged since Wednesday's televised debate with
Sarkozy, in which he accused her of losing her temper.  She made a
last-ditch attempt Friday to narrow the gap by saying that Sarkozy's
victory could cause violence in the largely immigrant French suburbs. 
That statement also appeared to turn some voters against Royal.

Polling stations for about one million French voters in the country's
overseas territories opened Saturday to compensate for the time
difference with mainland France.

Some 44 million voters are eligible to select a successor to outgoing
President Jacques Chirac.  Voting in mainland France begins at 8:00 AM
local time Sunday. 

Early polling opened in the island territories of St. Pierre and
Miquelon off Canada's east coast, on the Caribbean islands of
Martinique and Guadeloupe, and in French Polynesia in the southern
Pacific Ocean.

Sarkozy and Royal were the top two finishers in the first round of
French presidential elections April 22.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.


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