Police on alert as French voting starts

paris» Polling stations opened Saturday in France’s far-flung overseas territories for the country’s unpredictable presidential election as the 11 candidates in the race observed a ban on campaigning.

With voting beginning Sunday on the French mainland, the government has mobilized more than 50,000 police and gendarmes to protect 70,000 polling stations, with an additional 7,000 soldiers on patrol.

France’s 10 percent unemployment and its lackluster economy top voters’ concerns as first-round ballots are cast this weekend in the most nailbiting French election in generations.

Opinion polls showed a tight race among the four top contenders vying to get into the May presidential 7 runoff that will decide who becomes France’s next head of state. But the polls also showed that decision was largely in the hands of the one-in-three voters who are still undecided.

A deadly attack on police Thursday night on Paris’ famed Champs-Elysees Avenue clouded the last days of campaigning. Security is a prominent issue after a wave of extremist attacks on French soil, including the gunman who killed a Paris police officer Thursday before being shot dead by security forces. The gunman carried a note praising the Islamic State group.

Political campaigning was banned Saturday and Sunday until the polls close across France and online.

Polling centers opened in the Atlantic Ocean territories of Saint Pierre and Miquelon as well as French Guiana in South America, the Caribbean’s Guadeloupe and elsewhere. Voters abroad could also cast ballots in French embassies.

Polls suggested that 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 whose campaign was initially derailed by corruption allegations that his wife was paid but did no work as his parliamentary aide, appeared to be closing the gap, as was farleftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

The mad-dash campaigning of the last few weeks came to an abrupt halt after the ChampsElysees gun attack by 39-yearold Karim Cheurfi. Three suspects close to the attacker remain in custody.

In a sign of how tense the country is, a man holding a knife caused widespread panic Saturday at Paris’ Gare du Nord train station. He was arrested and no one was hurt.

Well-wishers paid their respects Saturday at the site of the shooting, which was adorned with flowers, candles and messages of solidarity for the slain police officer, Xavier Jugele. Across from the Eiffel Tower, women from the group Angry Wives of Law Enforcement demonstrated against violence aimed at police.

Some believed French stoicism would prevent a lurch to the right in the presidential vote, even though the attack dominated French headlines.