Nicolas Sarkozy tipped to lead party in new charge for French presidency
Paris: France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy was on Saturday tipped to win the leadership of his right-wing UMP in party elections, a position seen as a potential springboard back into high office.
The 59-year-old broke the worst-kept secret in French politics when he announced his political comeback in September, presenting himself as the saviour of his bitterly divided conservative opposition party.
There are no doubts about his aim, if yet unstated: to win back the keys to the Elysee palace which he lost in a humiliating poll defeat to Francois Hollande in 2012.
"Staying in the background when everything is going so badly would be cowardice, the opposite of my idea of political commitment," Sarkozy told a political meeting on the eve of the vote.
The energetic former leader has criss-crossed the country to drum up support for his candidacy at the head of the party all the while slamming the "mediocrity" of Hollande's deeply unpopular Socialist government.
Pollsters expect Sarkozy to sail through the election despite his much-heralded return to politics largely seen as having fallen flat, with his tangle of legal woes continuing to dog him.
UMP members began voting by internet on Friday night, and polls close at 8:00pm (1900 GMT) on Saturday. Results are expected shortly after.
The vote pits Sarkozy against main rival Bruno Le Maire, a former minister and senior party figure and lawmaker Herve Mariton.
However a victory still does not guarantee him a shot at toppling Hollande in presidential elections in 2017.
Sarkozy has as many devotees as rivals in the deeply split party, which is currently run by a trio of former prime ministers appointed after former leader Jean-Francois Cope was forced to resign in May over a campaign funding scandal linked to Sarkozy's last election bid.
This means the real battle comes when Sarkozy will have to fight off party heavyweights at UMP primaries due in 2016.
Chief among these is his former colleague turned arch-foe Alain Juppe, a popular politician and one-time prime minister who served as defence and then foreign minister under Sarkozy.
