Roadside bomb kills eight soldiers
FRENCH VOTERS have started casting ballots for their next president amid heightened security in what is being seen as a vote on the future of Europe.
More than 50,000 police and gendarmes were deployed to the 66,000 polling stations for Sunday’s election, which comes after Thursday’s deadly attack on the Champs-Elysees in which a police officer and a gunman were killed.
The presidential poll is the first ever to be held during a state of emergency, put in place since the Paris attacks of November 2015.
Voters are choosing between 11 candidates in the most unpredictable contest in decades.
Opinion polls point to a tight race among the four leading contenders vying to advance to the May 7 presidential run-off, when the top two candidates will go head to head.
Polls suggest far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, an independent centrist and former economy minister, were in the lead.
However, conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, who was embroiled in a scandal over alleged fake jobs, appeared to be closing the gap, as was far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.
France’s 10 per cent unemployment rate, its struggling economy and security were issues that top concerns for the 47 million eligible voters.
The election is widely seen as a vote on the future of the European Union – with most of the candidates railing against its institutions.
Both Ms Le Pen and Mr Melenchon – two candidates from opposite ends of the political spectrum - could pull France out of the 28-nation bloc and its shared euro currency in a so-called “Frexit”.
If either candidate wins a spot in the run-off, it will be seen as a victory for the rising wave of populism reflected by the votes for Donald Trump in the US and Brexit in Britain.
“It’s definitely risky, but I have faith in the result even if an extreme candidate qualifies for the second round,” said Beatrice Schopflin, who was queuing to vote in Paris.
Mr Macron and Mr Fillon are committed to European unity and would reform employment rules.
Metres from the polling station where Ms Le Pen was heading to vote, several feminist activmiles ists from the Femen group were arrested after staging a topless protest against the far-right leader, who is the only major female contender in the race.
Police intervened and stopped the commotion minutes before the 48-year-old arrived to cast her ballot in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont. No-one was hurt. Mr Macron, meanwhile, was the image of serenity as he posed for selfies with voters after casting his ballot in the coastal town of Le Touquet in northern France alongside his wife Brigitte Macron.
Mr Fillon voted in Paris but his Welsh-born wife Penelope - who has been handed preliminary charges for her role in the fake jobs scandal that rocked her husband’s campaign – voted 155 away from him near their 14th-century manor house in Sarthe.
Unpopular incumbent President Francois Hollande, who made a [pledge last year not to stand for re-election, voted in his political fiefdom of Tulle in Correze, southwestern France.
This year’s Socialist party presidential candidate Benoit Hamon cast his ballot in Trappes, a Paris suburb. Mr Melenchon also voted in Paris.
Financial markets are already jittery over a possible French exit from the EU which could folow the election, fearing capital flight, defaults or lawsuits on bonds and contracts.
Eight soldiers have been killed in Somalia and a further three are injured after a roadside bomb attack in a remote town in the semiautonomous state of Puntland.
Police official Ahmed Mohamed told the Associated Press that Sunday’s blast targeted a military convoy in Galgala.Security forces have been battling Islamic State (IS) fighters in the region.
The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group claimed responsibility for the blast.