Sarkozy under pressure

PARIS: French voters went to the polls on Sunday for the first round of a US-style primary to choose a rightwing candidate for next year´s presidential elections, with former president Nicolas Sarkozy and ex-prime minister Alain Juppe facing a late challenge from an outsider.

A last-minute surge in the opinion polls by Francois Fillon, who was prime minister under Sarkozy, showed he was in contention to grab one of the top two spots for next Sunday´s runoff.

Some voters surveys at the end of campaigning put 62-year-old Fillon nearly level with Sarkozy, 61, and Juppe, the 71-year-old political veteran who had been the frontrunner for the past two months.

Juppe´s strategy of playing the moderate against the fiery Sarkozy and the reform-minded Fillon appears to have backfired.