French people casting ballots in regional polls
People in France have started voting in regional elections, with the country’s far-right National Front (FN) party widely expected to score huge gains.
Polling stations opened at 08:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on Sunday and will close at 08:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT), with about 44 million people eligible to vote.
Voters are choosing leaders for the Western European state’s 13 newly-redrawn regions, which have wide powers over local education, transport and economic development.
Sunday’s elections will be also followed by a run-off scheduled for December 13.
The regional elections are being held under a state of emergency that was declared following the recent terror attacks, claimed by Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the French capital city of Paris. On November 13, assailants struck at least six different venues in and around Paris, leaving 130 people dead and over 350 others wounded.
Latest opinion polls have predicted that the FN will secure between 27 percent and 30 percent of the vote. The surveys have also projected a similar score for the center-right Republicans, led by the former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. The polls, however, have shown that the Socialist Party, led by President Francois Hollande, is languishing at around 22 percent of the vote.
“After the Nov. 13 attacks, we saw a clear increase in support for the National Front,” Ifop pollster analyst, Jerome Fourquet, said, adding, “Everything is adding up for (it) to make an unprecedented score.”
Marine Le Pen, the FN leader, is likely to win in the northern region of Nord-Pas-De-Calais-Picardie, while her niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, is also considered as a leading contender in the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur.
The FN has reportedly benefited from growing concerns over the refugee crisis gripping Europe, with most of the asylum seekers fleeing conflict-hit zones in the Middle East and Africa.
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