Posted on 05/05/2007 8:45:01 PM PDT by Cincinna
PARIS, May 5, 2007 (AFP) - Millions of French voters casting their ballots for the right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy or the socialist Segolene Royal may be the last to discover the name of their new president on Sunday night.
French electoral laws, among the strictest in Europe, ban the publication of any opinion polls, estimates of results or angled news reports from the day before a vote until the close of polls, to avoid influencing voters' choice.
For Sunday's presidential vote, in which France chooses a successor to the 74-year-old Jacques Chirac, the ban runs from midnight (2200 GMT) Friday to the close of the last polling stations at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT).
In France's overseas territories in the Caribbean and north Atlantic, which vote a day early, television screens went blank Thursday at midnight, with all cable and satellite news broadcasts suspended for 24 hours.
National news programmes were carried with a delay, to allow editors to slice out any reference to the electoral campaign on the mainland.
But though strictly applied in France, with fines of 75,000 euros (100,000 dollars) for offenders -- the rules are not enforced in neighbouring countries or for websites based outside the country.
In practice, any French person with an Internet connection, or who can pick up Swiss or Belgian radio from across the border, can easily circumvent the law.
From 1630 GMT on Sunday, the first projections of the results, conducted by polling firms based on a sample of votes cast but not designed for publication, will be sent out to political parties and the media.
In the April 22 first round, these secret figures were leaked and released by foreign media almost two hours before official projections were published in France at 1800 GMT -- and the same scenario is likely this weekend.
One Swiss mobile phone operator, Echovox -- in what it admits is a publicity stunt -- is offering to send text messages of the projections across the border to French users, for a 1.50-euro fee.
With French bloggers also threatening to post leaked estimates on their sites from 1630 GMT, the French media stand to be among the last to publish the estimated results of the country's own election.
Critics in France, including AFP, argue that the law puts French-based news organisations at a competitive disadvantage in a globalised media environment.
"We're in an awful situation," said Denis Hiault, global news director at AFP.
"As a French registered company we have to abide by the law of the land, despite the fact that this law is in some way obsolete in the Internet age," he said.
In the first round of voting last month, AFP had to wait until 1800 GMT to give the results even though it had them in hand for an hour beforehand, Hiault said.
AFP coverage of the first round was a success overall, Hiault said. "We're confident that our strength on the ground will make a difference at the end of the day," he added.
"But it is a unique and frustrating moment for journalists to have to hold back information which is being used outside France by non-French media. That last hour before the official release of the results seems to drag on forever.
That’s hard to see. Could you please post a larger version?
Liberals are so stupid rocks are ashamed of them...
I could but only her nostril would be present.
Sorry, I don’t know how to reduce the pic. The original had an explode button at the bottom and I thought I could pick the version that was largely reduced. hey, I’m a neophyte at this. any suggestions....besides not post if I don’t know what I’m doing?
Well, if she loses in France, I bet the Dems here would love to have her. Too bad they can’t.
I’ve never posted pictures here. There’s a thread called “HTML Sand box” with instructions. You’re allowed to “go crazy” there to practice fonts, styles and pictures.
from Wilkepedia, take it for what its worth:
“Ségolène Royal was born in the military base of Ouakam, Dakar, Senegal on 22 September 1953, the daughter of Hélène Dehaye and Jacques Royal, a former artillery officer and aide to the mayor of Chamagne (Vosges).
Her parents had eight children in nine years: Marie-Odette, Marie-Nicole, Gérard, Marie-Ségolène, Antoine, Paul, Henry and Sigisbert.
After high school, Marie-Ségolène was admitted to Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, an elite university, popularly called Sciences Po. In summer 1971, she was an au pair in Dublin, Ireland.[1] In 1972, at the age of 19, Ségolène sued her father because he refused to divorce her mother and pay alimony and child support to finance the children’s education. She won the case after many years in court, shortly before Jacques Royal died of lung cancer in 1981. Six of the eight children had refused to see him again at Ségolène’s insistence.[2]
Her cousin Anne-Christine Royal has been a candidate of the far-right Front National party at a local election in Bordeaux.[3]
Her brother Antoine named his and Ségolène’s brother Gérard Royal as the agent who placed the bomb that sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. [4] [5]. Other sources claims this statement is exaggerated and that Gérard was part of the logistics team.[6]
Ségolène Royal is a graduate of the elite École nationale d’administration (ENA) along with much of France’s political elite, and was in the same class as the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin.[7] Since the late 1970s, Ségolène Royal has been the private-life partner of François Hollande, currently first secretary of the French Socialist Party, whom she met at ENA. The couple have four children: Thomas (b. 1984), Clémence (b. 1985), Julien (b. 1987) and Flora (b. 1993). While not married, they are bound by the PACS (pacte civil de solidarité), which provides for a civil union between two adults, regardless of gender.”
Hey, at least she has a brother(Gérard Royal) and a cousin (Anne-Christine Royal) that may have a promising political career.
Gérard Royal
Gérard Royal is the former agent of the French intelligence agency DGSE who is accused of being a Rainbow Warrior bomber. A long serving officer, who retired from the French Army with the rank of Colonel, Royal works in an “economic intelligence business”. He is the brother of French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal.
In 1985 Royal was a member of the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE) (”General Directorate of External Security”), implicated in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. Since 1995 it had been public knowledge that Royal was one of the team of saboteurs. In September 2006, as his sister Ségolène became a candidate for the presidency, Gérard returned to media attention when his brother Antoine told Le Parisien that he had admitted to being the man who planted the bombs which killed Fernando Pereira.
Le Parisien quoted Antoine as saying “...he was called upon in 1985 to go to New Zealand, to Auckland Harbor, to sabotage the Rainbow Warrior. Later, he told me that it was him who planted the bomb on the Greenpeace ship”. However some French media, citing sources within the DGSE, have stated that Royal was merely the pilot of the inflatable boat carrying the bombers. Royal has refused to confirm or deny that he planted the bombs, but made a statement complaining of “harassment by the media”.
Pereira’s daughter and Greenpeace both called for the New Zealand government to demand the extradition of Royal to stand trial for the murder. But the government made clear that they considered the case as closed.
http://www.answers.com/topic/g-rard-royal
thx
Yeah with the internet, this is a realistic option.....
I hosted it through imageshack.us and resized it to 640 x 426
Ref your post #26 - I could but only her nostril would be present.
Well; is it a good looking nostril?
I was counting his pores.
Ewwww!
Everyone *** needs *** a *** hobby.
;-p
sure that the winner doesn’t do that?
-joke-
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