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Record Low Turnout In French Presidential Election
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Chirac
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PARIS
, April 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Apathy reigned in the
first round of
France
's presidential vote Sunday as disenchantment with main bidders
President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin pushed
turnout to a record low by
midday
, news agencies reported.
Only
21.41 percent of the electorate had cast their vote by
noon
local time compared to 22.52 percent in 1995, the French Interior
Ministry said.
The
1995 figure was the previous low during
France
's 44-year-old
Fifth
Republic
.
Although
unprecedented 16 candidates are jostling for votes, the conservative
Chirac and Socialist rival Jospin are virtually certain to proceed to
a runoff on May 5.
Chirac
is seen winning between 20 and 22 percent of the vote Sunday, with
Jospin at 18 percent, according to opinion polls published before a
pre-vote ban imposed at
midnight
Friday.
Yet
such scores in the first round, together making up just two-fifths of
the electorate, would signal a stinging rebuke to the two incumbents,
who have struggled to address voter concerns or convince people of
their record in power.
"There
is a total lack of motivation this year because the main candidates
are promising things they never delivered," said one voter,
Patrick Galonzka, a security officer in the town of Donzy, south of
Paris.
Both
leaders, locked for the last five years in an uneasy power-sharing
deal, have seen support waver as voters worried about crime and jobs
flock to protest candidates like far-right firebrand Jean-Marie Le Pen
and Trotskyite Arlette Laguiller.
Voting
was to end at
6 p.m.
in most of the country, but at
8 p.m.
in large cities such as Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Some 40 million
people are eligible to vote.
Chirac,
69, accompanied by his wife Bernadette and carrying a bunch of lily of
the valley, cast his vote in the town of
Sarran
in the central region of Correze, his family base.
Jospin,
64, is a stiff former professor who has struggled to capitalize on his
government's positive economic record since its surprise election in
1997 after Chirac gambled on dissolving parliament to return a
conservative majority and lost.
He
voted in the town of
Cintegabelle
in the southwest, where he is a regional official. Accompanied by
campaign aides, he had a quick drink in a local cafe before leaving.
Opinion
pollsters have predicted that up to 30 percent of voters could stay at
home Sunday against just 21.6 percent who abstained in the first round
of the 1995 presidential vote.
Newspapers,
barred from publishing fresh polls, focused on the abstention issue
and urged their readers to vote.
"Do
not give up this act which means that you hold a stake in the nation's
sovereignty," the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper
exhorted in an editorial.
There
is much at stake for the candidates in the first round. Failure to
gain a convincing majority would undermine the authority of the final
winner and could influence parliamentary elections to be held in June.
Throughout
the four-month campaign, Chirac and Jospin fought among a crowded
field of 16 candidates for the attention of uninterested voters, who
complained the two men had the same old political ideas.
In
the last election, in 1995, the Socialists chose Jospin to oppose
Chirac only after five others had to drop out for different reasons.
Jospin ran well, losing a close race in the second round that drew 80
percent of voters.
This
time around, however, the electorate is bored and pollsters predict
that up to one-third of them could stay away from the ballot box.
Political scandals are partly to blame for the apathy, according to
experts and opinion polls.
Meanwhile,
the national forum for Islamic culture had demanded from the French
presidential candidates to appoint a minister for Muslim affairs and
provide political roles and opportunities for Muslims, the French
paper Liberation reported Friday, April 19.
Members
of the forum submitted the names of 89 candidates for the political
roles, while criticizing the presidential candidate’s ignorance of
Muslim demands, especially Chirac and Jospin.
It
is worth noting that the forum’s president, Hakeem Gathani, called
upon the Muslim youth to register their names and vote in the
presidential elections. More than 17 thousand Muslims turned out to
vote.
France
includes a large number of Muslims from Moroccan, Algerian and African
origins.
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