Parliamentary elections open in France

The final round of elections started in France on Sunday as 46 million eligible voters can pick their representatives for the National Assembly, or lower house of the parliament.

Following the first round of the elections last week, the polling institute CSA announced that the left-wing and green parties have won some 46 percent of the votes in the first round, meaning the bloc has secured between 283 and 329 seats in France’s 577-seat parliament where winning 289 seats would mean an outright majority.

The voting has apparently dealt a blow to former president Nicolas Sarkozy whose conservative UMP party won 34 percent of the votes.

President Hollande needs to win an absolute majority in France’s National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament. The victory would give Hollande unprecedented power to push through his reform program, as his party already has a majority in the Senate.

Laurent Fabius, Hollande’s foreign minister, said the first round of the elections revealed that French voters wanted to be coherent with their votes in presidential elections. However, he stressed that wining a majority will be confirmed in the next week run-off.

MSH/JR

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