France's Sarkozy set for huge parliamentary win: Poll

Paris, May 31: New French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to secure a big majority in parliament next month, according to a poll for the Paris Match magazine.

An Ifop poll gave Sarkozy's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) 41 per cent of the vote in a June 10 first round ballot, a rise of 4 points on the previous poll.

The poll was released yesterday after Sarkozy urged voters to give him the strong majority he needs in the National Assembly lower house of parliament to implement the reform mandate he won in a May 6 presidential run-off ballot.

According to Ifop, the opposition Socialists would come second in the parliamentary polls with 27.5 per cent, down 0.5 per cent, followed by the Democratic Movement (MoDem) of centrist Francois Bayrou on 12 per cent, the far-right National Front (6 per cent), the Greens (4 percent) and Communists (3.5 per cent).

Ifop said the survey suggested Sarkozy's party would win 410-450 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, with 90-130 seats for the Socialists.

The Communists would win six-10 seats, Bayrou's MoDem's up to six seats, the Greens up to two seats and the far-right Movement for France party of Philippe de Villiers up to two seats.

Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front was seen as failing to win a seat, according to the survey of 931 adults carried out on May 24-25.

France has a two-round voting system based on constituencies designed to produce strong working majorities in parliament. A second round of voting will be held on June 17 in seats where no candidate wins an absolute majority in the first round.

The system means the Communists, whose support is concentrated in urban areas, could win more seats than Bayrou's centrists even if it secures less than a third of the MoDem's national vote.

Reuters>