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PARIS - Voting began overseas in French presidential elections on Saturday and frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy attacked "warlike" remarks by his rival Segolene Royal, who said his election on Sunday could trigger riots.
Polling stations opened in French Guiana, the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe and the tiny overseas territory of St. Pierre and Miquelon off Canada's east coast, as voting got under way a day before polls open in mainland France.
About 1 million French nationals outside France can cast their ballot a day early, a move intended to boost turnout. The rest of France's 44.5 million electors vote on Sunday.
In an interview released by the French daily Le Parisien on its Web site late on Friday, rightwinger Sarkozy said his Socialist rival's warning there might be violence if she lost the election was a sign of desperation.
"This warlike language is the negation of basic democratic rules," Sarkozy said. "No doubt it's because she's demoralised," he added. Royal trailed by 10 points in the last polls published on Friday ahead of a pre-vote embargo.
"To explain that if people don't vote for one candidate there will be violence is quite simply to refuse the democratic and republican expression of opinion," Sarkozy said.
The full interview could not be published in Saturday's print edition of Le Parisien because of an election ban on polls and campaigning on the eve of polling, to ensure voters a "day of reflection" before the ballot.
On Friday, Royal told RTL radio that "choosing Nicolas Sarkozy would be a dangerous choice", acknowledging that she was breaking a taboo by raising the prospect of violence.
Pressed as to whether there would actually be unrest if Sarkozy won, Royal said: "I think so, I think so," referring to suburbs hit by rioting in 2005.
Critics of Sarkozy accuse him of heavy-handed policing as interior minister and say his "scum" jibe, directed at young thugs he said were ruining life in one multi-ethnic suburb, fuelled the worst riots in mainland France in 40 years.
Royal raised the tone in the latter stages of the campaign, in which candidates' personalities rather than their policies have dominated.
Sarkozy, son of a Hungarian immigrant, was portrayed as an aggressive hardliner whose overweening ambition was a danger to democracy. Royal was dogged by her tag as a gaffe-prone lightweight who lacked presidential gravitas.
Sarkozy campaigned for the "silent majority" of hard-working French people, vowing real change with reforms that would shake up the strict labour code, restore full employment, offer higher growth and more spending power.
Royal said electing a woman would herald radical change for France, her left-wing economic policies and softer views on social affairs offering "change without brutality". But proposals such as sending young offenders to boot camps rankled with some Socialists as too authoritarian.
Having lacked bite early in the campaign, Royal went on the offensive after the April 22 first round, attacking Sarkozy in a mid-week TV debate in a bid to win over centrist voters who analysts say hold the key to Sunday's ballot.
But Sarkozy has since extended his lead, two polls on Friday giving him 55 percent to 45 percent for Royal, suggesting the Socialist will need a political tsunami to sweep away her rival if she is to become the first woman president of France.
A Sarkozy aide said plans were in hand for celebrations on Place de la Concorde in central Paris should he win. Sarkozy told Le Parisien that if elected he would take a break before assuming office on May 17, then lead the fight for June parliamentary polls.
- REUTERS
