PARIS (Sputnik) — The French Socialist Party is conducting the second round of primaries to choose a candidate for presidential elections, which will take place in April 2017.
About 7,500 polling stations opened this morning at 9 a.m. (08:00 GMT) and will close at 7 p.m. (18:00 GMT). The voters are to choose among the two remaining contenders — former Prime Minister Manuel Valls and ex-Education Minister Benoit Hamon.
The first round of the Socialist primaries took place on January 22, with Hamon coming first as he received 36.5 percent of votes and Valls, who received 31.9 percent, coming second.
Meanwhile, according to polls, the Socialist candidate, regardless of the results of the primaries, is likely to lose to the candidates from other parties, including Marine Le Pen (National Front) and Francois Fillon (The Republicans).
