French far-right leader Marine Le Pen would reach the final round of a presidential election if voters were to vote now, winning more votes than any mainstream party in the first round, a poll showed on Thursday, reports Reuters.
The survey by pollster IFOP showed Le Pen winning 26 percent of all votes in round one of the two-round election, versus 17 percent for either President Francois Hollande or his more popular prime minister, Manuel Valls.
The next presidential election is in 2017.
Le Pen, whose anti-European Union, anti-immigration party won most votes in the European Parliament election in May, would also get more votes in the first round than conservative ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, whom the poll showed winning 25 percent of total votes.
No Socialist contender would reach the second round if both Le Pen and Sarkozy are candidates in the election, the poll showed.
Read more of this report from Reuters.