French conservative party leader Nicolas Sarkozy would be eliminated in the first round of presidential elections if they were held on Sunday, a poll published on Friday showed, reports Yahoo! News.
His main challenger for the conservative ticket, Alain Juppé, would qualify for a run-off in first place, according to the survey by Ifop for website Atlantico, which also concluded that far-right leader Marine Le Pen would qualify under both scenarios.
If Sarkozy stood he would get 21 percent of the vote, topped by Le Pen with 27 percent and socialist president François Hollande with 22 percent. The poll assumed centrist leader Francois Bayrou would also make a presidential bid, getting 12 percent of the vote.
If former prime minister and mayor of Bordeaux Juppé won the conservative nomination he would win 30 percent, followed by Le Pen with 26 percent and Hollande with 20.5 percent.
Under the French system, the first two candidates in the first round of presidential elections contest a run-off. The next presidential election is in 2017.