Xinhua - English

A voter displays her ballot at a poll station in Clichy, near Paris, Fance, May 6, 2007 for the second and final round of the French presidential election. Poll stations opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) Sunday for the second-round presidential run-off across mainland France as voters will be choosing their new president between right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal, a woman candidate of the Socialist Party. (Xinhua Photo)

PARIS, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Voters in mainland France went to poll stations across the country on Sunday to choose a new president in a tight run-off race, which pits right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy against Segolene Royal, a woman candidate of the left-wing Socialist Party.

The poll booths opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and will close at 8p.m. (1800 GMT), with first unofficial results from exit polls expected soon afterwards.

On a sunny day, voters asking for changes and reforms went to cast their ballots peacefully and orderly, with no incidents reported so far.

After Royal warned Friday of eruption of violence in case of a Sarkozy election, security has been stepped up in Paris and the suburbs, with 3,000 police on alert for trouble.

At the polling station in the Clichy City Hall in suburban Paris, home to many immigrants, voters of different colors cast their votes in the hardest-fought election in years.

Roolan Houssein, who is of Arabic origin, told Xinhua that he voted for Sarkozy, president of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). "I don't trust Royal because she makes so many promises day after day."

Chantal Boula, who is of Cameroonian origin, said she supports Royal.

Calling Royal her "sister," who was born in Senegal, she told Xinhua "I voted for Royal because her policies are fair and square."

She also criticized Sarkozy as the "candidate of the rich."

At the polling station located in the Jules ferry A primary school, also in the Clichy region, a voter who only gave her given name Suzanne, said she voted for Sarkozy.

"Sarkozy has the abilities to rejuvenate France, he loves France and works hard," Suzzane, who is in the seventies, told Xinhua.

Suzzane's husband, who only gave his given name Jean and will vote in Paris, told Xinhua that he supports Sarkozy because Royal does not have "clear policies."

Voters in France's overseas territories in the Americas cast their votes on Saturday, a day earlier than the mainland, so that they could go to the polls without already knowing the results.

Some 44.5 million eligible voters are expected to vote for a new head of state who will guide them over the next five years.

The latest opinion polls showed that Sarkozy is a clear favorite who enjoyed a lead of eight to nine percent over Royal.

According to a TNS Sofres survey published on Friday, the last day for official campaigning ahead of Sunday's vote, 54.5 percent of voters say they would choose Sarkozy as their new president, and 45.5 percent say they would support Royal. Meanwhile, an IPSOS poll put Sarkozy at 54 percent against 46 percent for Royal.

The two presidential candidates won the tickets to run-off after finishing first and second in the April 22 first-round vote, with Sarkozy winning 31.2 percent and Royal 25.9 percent.

Both Sarkozy and Royal have promised new ideas to tackle France' s runaway national debt, high unemployment and other social issues.

Sarkozy promised labor market flexibility, strict controls on immigration, and a return to French values. He has promised to bring unemployment down from 8.3 percent to below five percent, and stimulate growth through a series of tax cuts.

Royal, bidding to become France's first female president, has promised to extend the country's welfare system and consolidate the reduced 35-hour working week. She will tackle youth unemployment, pledging to create 500,000 jobs for the young French whose jobless rate is more than twice the national average.

The war of words between the two presidential hopefuls continued to the end of the official campaigning on Friday.

Royal launched her strongest personal attack on Sarkozy, saying his election would unleash violence in the high-immigration suburbs that were the center of the 2005 riots.

"Choosing Nicolas Sarkozy would be a dangerous choice," Royal told RTL radio. "It is my responsibility today to alert people to the risk of (his) candidature with regards to the violence and brutality that would be unleashed in the country."

Sarkozy immediately rebuked Royal. In an interview carried by the French daily Le Parisien on its website on Friday, he criticized her remarks as "the negation of basic democratic rules" and a desperate move to woo supporters.

No matter who wins the vote, in a change of guard, France will embrace a new president for the next five years. The winner will replace 74-year-old Jacques Chirac, who has ruled the country for 12 years.

The new president takes office on May 17.

PARIS, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Voting started in France's overseas territories Saturday for the presidential run-off, one day earlier than mainland France, as right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy has extended his lead over left-wing Socialist Segolene Royal to some 9 percent in the latest polls.

Some 5,000 voters in the tiny Atlantic islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off Canada were the first to cast their ballots, French media reported. Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. local time (1000 GMT). Full story

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