FIL:E -- In this Aug. 24, 2006 file photo, former Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, left, and her partner of three decades Francois Hollande, arrive in La Rochelle, southwestern France. Despite four children together and decades of shared life, it's been politics first. Neither Segolene Royal nor Francois Hollande cracked as they faced each other off in primary debates to choose a Socialist candidate for next year's presidential elections. Voting for the Socialist candidate expected to face off conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy starts Sunday. (AP Photo/Bob Edme, file)
FIL:E -- In this Aug. 24, 2006 file photo, former Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, left, and her partner of three decades Francois Hollande, arrive in La Rochelle, southwestern France. Despite four children together and decades of shared life, it's been politics first. Neither Segolene Royal nor Francois Hollande cracked as they faced each other off in primary debates to choose a Socialist candidate for next year's presidential elections. Voting for the Socialist candidate expected to face off conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy starts Sunday. (AP Photo/Bob Edme, file)
PARIS (AP) ? France's Socialists will hold the first round of voting in a poll Sunday to determine which of six possible candidates will take on the unpopular President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's presidential elections.
After a series of televised debates among the candidates, polls show former Socialist party leader Francois Hollande with a clear lead, with the party's current head Martine Aubry in second.
Segolene Royal, the failed 2007 presidential candidate, is running a distant third.
In a first for France, primary voting is open to all registered voters, not just Socialist party members. Voters are required to sign a pledge that they share the values of the left, and to donate euro1 ($1.34) towards the cost of organizing the vote.
Sarkozy has not declared his intentions, but it is assumed he will seek a second mandate in the election scheduled for next April.
The number of people who cast ballots in Sunday's primary will be a critical indicator of the amount of support the Socialists might expect in the presidential race. The party took control of the Senate last month, a first, but the voting was indirect ? by regional elected officials, not the public.
If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in Sunday's poll, a run-off will be held Oct. 16 between the top two finishers.
The winner will take on Sarkozy in elections next April.
Recent opinion surveys have showed Sarkozy's approval ratings at historic lows. Leftist voters are angry at his cost-cutting measures and say he is too cozy with corporate interests. Many conservatives are disappointed that he has not been bolder about loosening up the labor market and hasn't eased tensions between police and youth in suburban housing projects.
The other candidates competing in Sunday's poll are Jean-Michel Baylet, Manuel Valls and Arnaud Montebourg.
Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominque Strauss-Kahn had long been assumed to become the Socialists' presidential candidate, but allegations by a New York hotel maid last May that he sexually assaulted her upended those plans ? although prosecutors later dropped the case.
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