Click to play videoNew Delhi: Voters are registering a high turnout at the start of the first round of French presidential polls on Sunday.
More than 30 per cent of 44 million eligible voters had queued up by noon in a race that will decide who the successor to president Chirac will be.
Voters have a choice of 12 candidates, with a run-off between the top two on May 6.
The leading candidates are conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, socialist Sago-len Royal, centrist Francois Bayrou and far-right leader le Pen.
Royal is the first woman to become a serious contender for the French presidency.
Each has promised a new approach to politics and each has vowed to change the status quo.
The new president will succeed Jacques Chirac, who ends 12 years as head of state at the close of his second mandate, and must revive a large but listless economy and bring alienated young Muslims into French life.
Sarkozy and Royal are leading in polls, but a large number of voters remained undecided at the last hour.
There would be no second round if a candidate draw more than 50 per cent of the vote – something that has never happened in modern France.
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