Le Pen says she will cast blank ballot in Sunday's poll

Irish Sun Tuesday 1st May, 2012

• Le Pen won 6.5 million votes - or 17.9% - in the April 22 vote

• Hollande and Sarkozy face off in a TV election debate Wednesday

• To win a second mandate, Sarkozy has to attract most of the voters who chose Le Pen

PARIS - Ahead of Sunday's run-off in the French presidential elections, far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Tuesday she would cast a blank vote that day and told supporters to follow their conscience.

Le Pen told a rally of her National Front party that she could back neither incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy nor Socialist Francois Hollande, who has a lead over Sarkozy.

Le Pen, who won 6.5 million votes - or 17.9% - in the April 22 first round election, told her supporters to "vote according to your conscience."

"Each of you will make your own choice based on your soul and conscience and sensibilities," the 43-year-old politician told her supporters at the Opera square in central Paris. "I will grant neither confidence nor mandate to these two candidates. On Sunday I will cast a blank ballot."

Her announcement came a day ahead of Hollande and Sarkozy facing off in a televised election debate on Wednesday.

Le Pen also praised the campaign of her party and said it had touched the spirit of the French people. "We have become the centre of gravity for French politics," she said.

"Debates today are structured around our proposals."

To win a second mandate, Sarkozy has to attract most of the voters who chose Le Pen in the first round."

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