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Juppe dominates French primary vote despite losing momentum: survey

Xinhua, November 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Alain Juppe, a moderate conservative, maintained a comfortable lead in the center-right parties' competition for the 2017 presidential ticket, despite a slide in public support, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Ifop pollster indicated that 37 percent of respondents who plan to vote in the upcoming primary, said they would vote Juppe to lead the conservatives in the presidential race next year.

His score in November is down by four percentage points compared to a month earlier, the poll added.

Despite losing momentum, Juppe confirmed his lead over his challenger Nicolas Sarkozy, who second with 31 percent of the votes, the poll for news channel iTele, Paris Match and Sud Radio showed.

Juppe, ex-prime minister, who served also foreign minister, was set to win a run-off on Nov. 27 with 57 percent of the vote against Sarkozy's 43 percent.

"Juppe is mirroring an anti-Sarkozy image. French voters are seeing him as the best candidate who has all the assets of a statesman, unifier who has capacity to contribute to the economy recovery," Erwan Lestrohan, director of BVA Opinion studies told Xinhua.

According to the country's pollsters, the winner of the conservative primaries will be the favorite to unseat the Socialist Francois Hollande, the current occupant of the Elysee Palace.

Five other candidates also joined pool of contenders for the two-round primaries scheduled for Nov. 20 and 27.

The short-list of nominees for the primaries includes the main players of Sarokzy's government five years ago: ex-Premier Francois Fillon, former agriculture minister Bruno Le Maire, and ex-ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet.

Jean-Francois Cope, former president of the conservative party UMP, and Jean-Frederic Poisson, the head of the Christian Democratic Party, will also compete in the primary.

The contenders will face-off in third televised debate on Nov. 17 in a last chance to defend their election bid ahead of Sunday's first round of the primary.

The Nov. 20 competition is the first ever to be held by France's main right-wing party. Endit