Reports suggest socialist candidate Francois Hollande has defeated incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy in France’s run-off presidential election, according to exit polls.
Official results will be announced at 2 p.m. eastern, when polls close. French media are barred from reporting exit poll results before polls close.
From McClatchy:
French Socialist Francois Hollande appeared headed to victory over President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to exit polls of voters released by Swiss and Belgian news media.
Those polls showed Hollande with 52 to 53 percent of the vote in an election that turned on solutions for Europe’s economic crisis amid record unemployment in France.
French voters were still headed to cast their ballots when the exit polls were released in the early evening _ the results of exit polls cannot be published in France until voting ends at 8 p.m., 2 p.m. Eastern _ but the outcome seemed all but certain.
