Right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy goes into France's presidential election today with an edge over Socialist Segolene Royal in opinion polls, but millions of undecided voters could yet cause a surprise.

Voting began a day early in some overseas territories yesterday, with the final opinion polls showing Sarkozy ahead of Royal and 10 other candidates, putting the two front-runners on course for a second-round run-off on May 6.

Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, promises to crack down on crime and improve life for a "silent majority" of hard-working French. Royal, who wants to be France's first woman president, has pledged to re-unite a divided nation.

But the surveys suggest up to a third of France's 44.5 million voters have not made a final decision and neither third-placed centrist François Bayrou and veteran far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen has given up hope.

Le Pen shocked France in the last election in 2002 by beating Socialist Lionel Jospin in the first round before losing a run-off to Jacques Chirac, who is not seeking a third term.

Jobs, globalisation and security have been at the heart of the campaign less than two years after riots broke out in deprived housing estates, with France's more than eight per cent unemployment rate one of the highest in the European Union.

But there has also been a strong urge for change after Chirac's 12 years in power.

"France wants a change of air," left-wing newspaper Liberation said in an editorial. "Tired of its elites, it is looking for new leaders, new policies and a new republic." Polls open in mainland France at 8 a.m. today and close at p.m. Initial partial results will be known soon afterwards.

The campaign has focused on personality as much as policies. Royal and Sarkozy have campaigned as outsiders to the hidebound system of government and both promise renewal. Sarkozy, 52, a former interior and finance minister, was applauded by many voters for a tough response to the 2005 riots and financial markets see him as the candidate with the strongest attachment to free-market reforms.

But his combative and hyperactive character has also worried some voters and rivals portray him as dangerously authoritarian. Royal, who defied veteran leaders of her party to win the Socialist nomination, has marred her campaign by making gaffes that prompted questions about her competence to lead the world's fifth-largest economy and a nuclear power.

She has combined left-wing economic policy with conservative social ideas and unsettled many Socialists with proposals such as sending young offenders to boot camps and suggesting people keep flags at home to display on balconies on national holidays. Her strategy of attacking Sarkozy in the last days of the campaign paid off in improved poll ratings.

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