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Sunday, April 22, 2007

A historical vote in France: Sarkozy and Royal in, Le Pen to the trash can

At exactly 8 PM Paris time the first round election projection came in: Sarkozy won with 29.6% and Royal made a good second position 25.1%. In third Bayrou with 18 %.

But the best results are in the participation vote which might have been an historical high (it is at least 20% above normal in the Americas and Polynesia) and Le Pen falls to 11%. If we add to this some of the not very democratic minority candidates we have no more than 20% of "extremist" vote in France. With today vote France succeeds in renewing its political cast while refreshing its democracy with a good campaign, a good debate and an exceptional participation.

Caracas result

I have been told that the Caracas embassy gave 55% to Sarkozy. In other words, this is the highest vote ever on the first round for a center-right or right candidate in Venezuela. Courtesy of the Chavez effect? The participation was also very high: people had to stand in line for up to one hour, something never seen at an embassy vote in Caracas. Confession: for personal and work reasons I could not go to Caracas so I did not vote!!! But fear not, I will be there, the deities willing, for the second round.

(to be updated later in a new post)


-The end-

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