Some 2.5Mln Vote in French Center-Right Presidential Primaries - Official

Over 2.5 million French voters have cast their ballots in the first round of The Republicans Party's presidential primaries, Thierry Solere, the head of the election's organization committee said Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Among those competing for the right to run for presidency are ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, former prime ministers Alain Juppe and Francois Fillon, as well as lawmakers Bruno Le Maire, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Jean-Frederic Puason and Jean-Francois Cope.

"About 70 percent of the polling stations have been able to submit their data on the turnout by 17:00 [local time, 16:00 GMT)… By 17:00 we have had 2,501,481 voters," Solere said, as quoted by Les Echos newspaper.

The polling stations closed at 7 p.m. local time, according to Le Monde newspaper.

Fillon's team appealed to senior authorities after one of their observers had not been let into a polling station in the town of Chateaurenard in the department of Bouches-du-Rhone in Southern France, Le Monde newspaper reported. The Mayor of Chateaurenard Bernard Reynes told the newspaper that the observer in question had not been on any list that would allow him to enter.

The latest polls favored Juppe but pointed out Fillon's recent surge in popularity. The surveys also indicated that,  considering the weak stance of the ruling Socialist Party, the center-right nominee would be likely to face the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen as the main contender in the general presidential election, slated for April 2017.