Voters head to the polls

The French headed to the polls on Sunday (April 22) in the first round of presidential elections, with a feeble economy that could make Nicolas Sarkozy the country's first president to lose a re-election bid in more than 30 years.

Sarkozy is battling Socialist opponent Francois Hollande in the two-round election. Opinion polls have given the challenger a double-digit lead for a May 6 runoff.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, hard leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon and centrist Francois Bayrou rank in third, fourth and fifth place for the April 22 first round between 10 candidates.

57-year-old Hollande promises less drastic spending cuts than Sarkozy and wants higher taxes on the wealthy to fund state-aided job creation, in particular a 75 percent upper tax rate on income above 1 million euros (1.32 million US dollars).

He would become France's first left-wing president since Francois Mitterand, who beat incumbent Valery Giscard-'Estaing in 1981.