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France's UMP holds Web-based primary

France's governing party was scheduled to start a Web-based primary yesterday, a first in a presidential campaign where the Internet has acquired unprecedented importance.

The UMP party primary is not likely to be a nail biter: with only one candidate, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, on the virtual ballot, the outcome of the 10-day-long vote is all but certain.

Still, UMP leaders are hoping the online primary -- which is open only to its 330,000 members -- will mark a break with political convention and give the party an aura of tech-savvy modernity.

The conservative UMP is not the sole party to make the Internet a key element of its campaign in the run-up to France's two-round presidential elections in April and May. The opposition Socialists and also the extreme-right National Front, led by 78-year-old Jean-Marie Le Pen, have also relied heavily on their Web sites to seduce voters and pump up party ranks.

Though many French parties were on the Web in the last presidential elections in 2002, the impact of political sites has skyrocketed during this campaign, helping change the way politics is done here.

Socialist candidate Segolene Royal has made her Web site the keystone of a campaign based around what she calls "participative democracy," with users invited to take part in a host of online forums and debates. Royal drew on online feedback in drafting her platform, which she released chapter by chapter on the Web site.

"Politics must be based on the realities of people's lives," Royal has said. "It must be attentive to the lessons of the people."

The Web played a key role in the UMP's pre-primary debates, with Sarkozy and other would-be candidates fielding questions from viewers watching on the Internet. The party's other presidential hopefuls later dropped out of the race, leaving Sarkozy the sole contender in the UMP's upcoming online primary.

A message from Sarkozy on a UMP Blog site urges party members to cast their online ballots and calls on users to "participate in the political dialogue and become an agent for change."

Le Pen has also embraced the power of the Internet. The veteran firebrand is reaching out to supporters in a series of on-demand videos posted on his Web site.

Recent opinion polls show Royal and Sarkozy running neck-and-neck, with Le Pen, who shocked the world by making it to the second round of the 2002 presidential race, coming in third.
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