Polls opened yesterday in the decisive round of regional elections across France, amid expectations that President Jacques Chirac's governing conservative party would be dealt a sharp mid-term rebuke by the country's 42 million voters.
The first round of the elections a week ago gave the left-wing opposition a six-point lead over Chirac's Union for a Popular Movement and its allies, which won only 34 percent of the vote.
The outcome of yesterday's second-round ballot could decide the political future of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who is widely expected to take the blame for a defeat.
Polling stations opened at 8:00am. The last of them are due to close at 8:00pm, when the normally reliable first estimates were to be released.
In many of France's 26 regions -- 22 of them in mainland France and Corsica, and four of them overseas -- the elections were a three-way race between the UMP, the opposition Socialists and its allies, and the far-right National Front (FN).
Projections based on the round one vote show that the UMP and its junior coalition partner, the Union for French Democracy (UDF), could lose between five and 12 of the 14 regions they won at the last elections in 1998.
Introduced in 1982, France's regions have little political importance, but the vote is being closely followed because, apart from European elections in June, it is the only chance for the electorate to pass judgement on Raffarin's government before the end of its mandate in 2007.
With the UMP resigned to another drubbing, Chirac was said to be preparing a quick Cabinet reshuffle to show he has taken account of the message from the voters.
Raffarin was expected to remain in his job -- though greatly weakened and at risk of being sacked if the European elections, too, go badly for the UMP -- as a lightning rod to deflect the voter's attention from Chirac.
An opinion survey by the CSA firm released Wednesday showed Raffarin's popularity rating had slid five points from February to a low 38 percent. Chirac's gained by the same amount to 56 percent.
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