By KUNA
Paris : The first round of the French municipal elections kicked off on Sunday across the country, in the first “significant electoral test” for French President Nicolas Sarkozy since taking office in May 2007.
About 44.5 million eligible voters headed for the poll stations to elect 36, 000 city mayors and 500,000 municipal councilors.
The Socialists called for “punishing” Sarkozy through the elections as they were fighting to win the cities that had been lost to the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in the 2001 elections. According to polls, the Socialists and the left-wing party are expected to post an “easy” win in Paris and other prominent cities, such as Lyon, Lille and Toulouse.
In the 2001 municipal elections, Socialist Bertrand Delanoe won Paris while this year Francoise de Panafieu will represent the UMP party as the right tries to regain the capital but polls indicate that Delanoe is favored to win an easy re-election.
According to reports, two-thirds of Sarkozy’s 22-member cabinet are competing for municipal seats, in addition to his son Jean Sarkozy, 21, who is running for a seat in the posh Neuilly-sur-Seine suburb in Paris, where his fathers political career began as mayor for 19 years.
The UMP ruling party currently controls 55 percent of the 230 French cities.
The polls are scheduled to close at 20:00 local time in the large cities and at 18:00 in the smaller ones.