国际英语新闻：Opposition leads in French regional elections

PARIS, March 14 (Xinhua) -- French opposition party Socialist is leading the first round of regional election with 30 percent of ballots while the ruling UMP follows with a share of 26.7 percent, the professional pollster TNS-Sofres institute said on Sunday evening.

According to the initial estimation, the Socialist Party is running ahead of the UMP by nearly 3.5 points, and the Green Party is posting at the third position with 13.1 percent of votes, while 11.2 percent are for the far-right party National Front.

Another pollster Opinionway gave out a similar primary result: the Socialist Party took the first place with 29.1 percent of votes and the UMP followed with 27.3 percent.

The absentation rate reached a record high, which translated by local media as French voters' mute protest against current ruling allies.

TNS-Sofres said the absentation was 52.50 percent and the Opinionway estimated that 55 percent of voters shunned the election, over 10 points higher than the last regional parliamentary election in 2004.

The left-wing bloc is estimated to win 53.8 percent of votes, compared to 40.4 percent for the right-wing parties, according to exit polls.

Millions of voters in 26 French regions went to polls for the first round of the regional elections. They will choose along the party lines, which means choosing the president of the party heading the name list is recognition of the whole team.