Rivals for the French presidency made their final appeals to millions of undecided voters on Friday as the official campaign drew to an end ahead of an election seen as too close to call.
Right-wing contender Nicolas Sarkozy was leading in opinion polls ahead of Socialist Ségolène Royal, aiming to become France’s first woman president, but both sides feared a surprise in Sunday’s voting from centrist Francois Bayrou.
The 12 candidates have until midnight on Friday (local time) to make their pitch to voters and the top contenders criss-crossed the country for the final hours of lobbying, with one in three voters still undecided.
The final wave of polls before the close of campaigning at midnight on Friday showed Sarkozy winning 27% to 30% of first-round votes, ahead of Royal on 23% to 25% and Bayrou on 15% to 19,5%.
Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who shocked France in 2002 when he made it into the run-off against Jacques Chirac, is credited with 12,5% to 16%. The top two contenders will face off on May 6.
With polls suggesting Sarkozy is guaranteed a place in the run-off, Sunday’s vote has largely come down to a battle for second place between Royal and Bayrou, who promises a unity government of left and right.
Commentators suggest Royal could lose to Bayrou if her voters decide he stands a better chance of beating Sarkozy in round two.
One poll, published on Friday by CSA, showed Royal pulling even with Sarkozy in a run-off vote, but almost all since January have predicted a Sarkozy victory.
Two leading French newspapers, the centre-left Le Monde and left-wing Liberation, have warned their readers not to vote for Bayrou, saying it would deprive the country of a true choice if the left is knocked out of the race.
Royal (53) took the press on a walkabout of a market in central Paris on Friday, urging all left-wing voters to back her in the first round.
Earlier at her Paris campaign headquarters, she took aim at Sarkozy’s call for a “rupture” or “clean break” with past politics, saying “France needs to be reformed without brutality, without violence, without rupture”.
Royal also attacked Bayrou’s promise of a unity government of left and right, saying the centrist was “sitting on the fence, which is not a very comfortable place to be”.
Speaking on his home turf in the south-western town of Pau late on Thursday, Bayrou (55) also focused his attacks on Sarkozy’s rightward shift on questions of immigration and national identity.
“By driving up tensions between communities, between origins, between religions, skin colours, France is being turned into a dangerous place,” Bayrou said. “I want France to be secure and calmed.”
Sarkozy (52) spent the last day of campaigning in the southern Camargue region, where he visited a bull ranch on horseback, posing for photographers in jeans and checked shirt.
Sarkozy has come under increasing attack from rivals who say his tough line on crime and immigration are the sign of a dangerously authoritarian streak.
Political rivals and youths in the high-immigrant suburbs say the policing methods he introduced as interior minister helped provoke the 2005 riots.
Campaign posters of all the candidates have been defaced, but reports suggest Sarkozy’s have had the most attacks, with Hitler moustaches drawn on his face and devil’s horns on his head.
On Thursday, at his final rally in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, Sarkozy denounced the “insults and lies” directed at him.
In an interview with Le Parisian on Friday, he said personal attacks had taken a heavy toll on his family: “I did not think they would suffer so much.”
Critics accuse Sarkozy of straying too far on to the territory of Le Pen’s National Front (FN) in his bid to draw its voters back to the mainstream.
Le Pen, also holding his final rally on Thursday, told supporters in the Riviera city of Nice, a National Front stronghold, that a “great national wave will sweep away the oligarchy” in power.
About 45-million voters are eligible to vote for a successor to President Jacques Chirac, who is stepping down after 12 years in office and has endorsed Sarkozy.
Voting starts on Saturday for 882 000 citizens in overseas departments and for the 820 000 expatriates who can vote in embassies and consulates abroad.
Polls open at 8am local time on Sunday in mainland France, with the first results expected shortly after voting stations close at 8pm. — AFP