Erstellt am: 21. 4. 2012 - 10:16 Uhr
Vive L'Election!
In France, just like in Austria, it’s against the law to publish exit polls or projected results before the last ballot stations have closed. But in the past, media in Belgium and Switzerland have published estimates based on partial vote counts in provincial polling stations, which close at 18:00, two hours before the final polls close at 20:00. That’s what happened in 2007, but of course that was less than a year after the birth of Twitter, and Facebook had only been widely available for a matter of months. This time round, if the Belgian and Swiss media did the same thing, the word would spread a whole lot faster.
Facing a fine of € 75,000 or up to € 375,000

On Friday, the French polling commission said the country’s nine main polling institutes had agreed not to conduct any exit polls and would not release projections based on provisional vote counts to the media. Polling Commission President Marie-Eve Aubin said all voters have the right to the same information and early result projections might unduly influence late voters. She said that anyone who publishes early vote projections on any platform, including social networking sites, faces a fine of € 75,000 or up to € 375,000 euros for a company. "I want to contradict the idea that the law is obsolete just because it was adopted in a prehistoric period, before Facebook, Twitter or even the Internet," she said.

EPA
That’s a bit of a slap on the wrist for President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has called the rules outdated and told RTL radio he would "not be shocked" if citizens consulted foreign websites about voting projections. "Everyone has a computer. Can we put up a digital barrier? Should we scramble people's computers? What kind of world are we living in?" he asked. But Aubin said the law remained in force and the commission had made arrangements with the Paris prosecutor to come down hard on any media group that published exit polls or early results.
One of the most important French elections in decades
Meanwhile, the candidates themselves have been wrapping up their campaigns in what is seen as one of the most important French elections in decades. Opinion polls suggest Sarkozy’s Socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, will win the two-round contest, ending 17 years of conservative presidency. The final round of opinion polls on Friday mostly showed Sarkozy’s support eroding while Hollande’s backing held steadily. The two rivals are about 10 points ahead of third-ranked Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, in surveys for Sunday's first round, with hard leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon, the surprise of the campaign, challenging Le Pen for third place. Yet polls also suggest nearly a quarter of voters have yet to make up their minds and Sarkozy supporters have been talking about a Sunday "surprise". Sarkozy and Hollande are expected to face off in the second round on May 6, with opinion polls predicting a comfortable lead for Hollande of between 7 and 14 percentage points.
Hear more on Saturday 12 noon
To hear more about the personalities of the incumbent and his challenger, the campaign issues, the mood in the troubled “banlieues”, and the challenges from the far-left and far-right, tune in to Reality Check at 12 noon or check out the Reality Check podcast.
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