A slew of new polls conducted on the French presidential election shows Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande building a lead ahead there ahead of the first ballots are cast. France uses a two round system, which is an open contest in the first round (set for April 22nd), and if no candidate gets over 50 percent of the vote, the top two candidates move on to the second round (May 6th). Polls show that Hollande and current French President Nicolas Sarkozy are likely to move on to the second round, where Hollande has a large lead. From Bloomberg:
[Hollande and Sarkozy] addressed supporters in Paris yesterday with Hollande extending his advantage in a head-to-head race by two points to 56 percent against 44 percent, according to a TNS Sofres survey on April 13. The challenger took the lead in the 10-person first round set for April 22. A CSA poll on April 12 put the gap at 57-43, up from eight points two weeks ago.
A bounce for Sarkozy after police killed a self-declared jihadist who murdered seven people last month has ebbed. The campaign focus has returned to the sputtering economy and rising unemployment.
