国际英语新闻：Ruling UMP loses to left-wing amid high abstention in France's regional election

PARIS, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Besides a record high abstention, the French ruling central-right party has to endure a near-wipeout in the runoff of the regional election on Sunday as initial results showed that the opposition left-wing took over all but one of 22 regions in metropolitan France.

As the latest polls closed doors at 8:00 p.m., exit polls by the pollster the OpinionWay presented that the opposition Socialist-led left-wing finally took over Corsica, just missing Alsace for a "grand slam."

Corsica and Alsace are the only two strongholds of the ruling UMP-led right-wing in 2004's regional election.

In the second round, the left-wing parties have won 54.3 percent of the vote, while the UMP, President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, just garnered 36.1 percent.

The far-right National Front won 8.7 percent in the runoff, less than the surprisingly good result of 11.42 percent in the first round, but enough to heal the trauma it suffered from the European election last year, during which less than 6 percent of voters cast for it.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy leaves the polling booth before casting his ballot at a Paris polling station in the second round of regional elections March 21, 2010. Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party is due to face heavy losses in regional elections on Sunday that could affect the pace of reform as manoeuvring begins before the 2012 presidential campaign