Hollande leads French first-round vote, far-right surges

With 34 percent of votes counted, Socialist challenger Francois Hollande scored 27.5 percent and incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy scored 26.6 percent in the first round of French presidential elections on Sunday, according to official results.      

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen scored a surprisingly strong 19.9 percent.    

The first-round result means Hollande and Sarkozy will face off in a deciding runoff on May 6, where Le Pen's voters could throw open opinion poll projections that give Hollande a 10-point lead.        

In the first round of the 2012 presidential election, French voters chose between 10 candidates for the country’s top post after a raucous campaign season that saw the economy dominate the political discourse.          

After a bitter campaign season that raged amid the backdrop of the eurozone crisis, voters across France cast their ballot Sunday in the first round of the 2012 French presidential election.          
An estimated 44.5 million eligible French voters chose between 10 candidates, including incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist Party candidate François Hollande and extreme right National Front party chief, Marine Le Pen. Polls opened at 8am local time Sunday across mainland France following a one day break from campaigning that began at midnight Friday.         

Voting began Saturday for French citizens living in the Americas as well as in France’s far-flung overseas territories -- islands in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans -- where 882,000 French citizens enjoy full voting rights.