Voter turnout was slightly up in Sunday's second round regional elections in France, according to the country's interior ministry, after calls by both major parties for people to go to the polls following last week's low turnout, according to dpa. As of 1600 GMT, nine hours after polls opened across the country, turnout stood at 43.47 per cent, up from 39.29 per cent in the first round at the same time. But the figure was significantly lower than turnout in the second round of the 2004 regional elections, in which some 60 per cent of register voters eventually cast their ballots. It was believed that President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative ruling UMP party suffered the most from last Sunday's record low turnout of 46.5 per cent of France's 44 million registered voters. But turnout was also very low in the country's poor suburban ghettos whose residents usually vote for left-wing parties. Latest polls indicated that Sarkozy and his ruling UMP party could lose all 22 metropolitan regions in the country, a humiliating setback that would put pressure on the president to shuffle his government and reconsider some of his policies. Observers will be taking a close look at the results from Alsace, where polls showed the UMP candidate and his Socialist rival running neck and neck. Currently, the Socialists govern 20 of the 22 metropolitan regions. These do not include France's four overseas regions, in three of which elections are also being held Sunday. In Guadeloupe, the Socialist list of candidates garnered the necessary majority in the first round to be elected.
