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| Nicolas Sarkozy wins French opposition UMP party vote | Nicolas Sarkozy wins French opposition UMP party vote |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected head of the opposition UMP, in what is being seen as the start of a new bid for the presidency. | Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected head of the opposition UMP, in what is being seen as the start of a new bid for the presidency. |
| Mr Sarkozy gained 64.5% of the vote, well ahead of his nearest rival Bruno le Marie. | |
| He was under pressure to win by a wide margin, and hoped to get more than 70% to keep his re-election hopes alive. | He was under pressure to win by a wide margin, and hoped to get more than 70% to keep his re-election hopes alive. |
| The UMP has struggled to be effective in opposition to Francois Hollande, despite the president's dismal ratings. | The UMP has struggled to be effective in opposition to Francois Hollande, despite the president's dismal ratings. |
| Mr Sarkozy, 59, won 85% of the vote when he was first elected party leader in 2004. | |
| He served as president from 2007 and 2012 but left active politics after his defeat to Mr Hollande. | |
| More than 150,000 party members - over 50% - voted in the election, despite the process being slowed down by a cyber attack. | |
| Mr Le Maire, a former agriculture minister, received just less than 29.2% and a third candidate, MP Herve Mariton 6.3%. | |
| Divisive figure | |
| Mr Sarkozy posted a message to supporters on his Facebook page (in French). | |
| "I would like to thank all the UMP members who did me the honour of electing me leader of our political family," he said. | |
| "Their mobilisation, at a level unequalled in the history of our movement, is the best response to two years of internal quarrels and divisions." | |
| But a spokeswoman for Mr Hollande's Socialist Party said that the UMP's campaign had provided "nothing new for France". | |
| "Mr Sarkozy's victory in the campaign for the UMP presidency is not the triumphal return that he was hoping for," Corinne Narassiguin said. | |
| Florian Philippot, spokesman for the far-right National Front, described the result as an "utter failure" for Mr Sarkozy. | |
| The UMP will choose its nominee for the 2017 presidential elections in two years, but correspondents say a lower than expected party vote for Mr Sarkozy could encourage other UMP leaders to stand against him. | |
| Former prime ministers Alain Juppe and Francois Fillon are widely reported to want to be the UMP's candidate for president. | |
| Mr Sarkozy is disliked by some French voters for his unusually high-profile private life, with critics branding his one-term tenure as the "bling-bling" presidency. | |
| The 2012 leadership ballot - after Mr Sarkozy left office - degenerated into a hugely damaging row as Mr Fillon refused to accept the victory of Sarkozy ally Jean-Francois Cope. | |
| Declared the winner, Mr Cope stood down this May after the party suffered badly in the European elections as the National Front capitalised on voter discontent. | |
| National Front leader Marine Le Pen is due to be returned unopposed as party leader at its meeting in Lyon on Sunday. |