France's Sarkozy fights to keep job as voters to go polls

French President Nicolas Sarkozy cast his ballot Sunday in the country's presidential elections as he fought to keep his job in the face of challenges from nine other candidates. Sarkozy voted with his wife Carla Bruni in Paris. Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, who has mounted a strong effort to unseat the center-right Sarkozy, voted earlier in the city of Tulle. He urged the left to unite behind him as he cast his vote. "We must bring together the left, and before we bring together the left, we must bring together the Socialists. It's a process, and I think that I have the capacity to do it," he said. Pierre Oriacombu, a business consultant, told CNN he was voting for the incumbent. "We have a lot of problems, and I think Nicolas Sarkozy does a better job with these problems than many others," he said. But Julien Ceval, voting at the same polling station as Sarkozy and Oriacombu, is backing Hollande. "We need to stop Nicolas Sarkozy and to make a change," said Ceval, an engineer. "I'm not really sure Hollande is the man who will change France but I want to try." More than a quarter of French voters had cast ballots by noon, the Interior Ministry announced. That put turnout on pace to be lower than when Sarkozy was elected in 2007, but higher than in 2002, when his predecessor Jacques Chirac was voted in for his final term. A polling station in Toulouse, in the south of the country, had a steady stream of voters, mostly elderly people, but also including some families dragging along little children and shopping baskets. Officials in Toulouse say they are hoping for 70% turnout, and said voting was going smoothly. Voting started Saturday in France's overseas territories, including Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique and French Polynesia. Voters in mainland France headed to the polls Sunday. In addition to Sarkozy and Hollande, candidates include Jean-Luc Melenchon on the extreme left, Marine Le Pen on the extreme right, centrist Francois Bayrou and Eva Joly of the Greens. Melechon, Le Pen and Bayrou had double-digit support in opinion polling ahead of the vote, behind the two frontrunners. Last week, polls suggested Sarkozy was trailing Hollande going into the first round of voting. French law forbids the reporting of exit poll results on election day itself. The economy and jobs have been key election issues, as France struggles to overcome low growth and a 10% unemployment rate. Sarkozy, the flamboyant politician who has led the country since 2007, told Le Figaro newspaper Thursday that voters had a "crucial choice" to make for their country. He pledged new strategies for economic growth and job creation, saying France was seeing signs of recovery this year.Hollande, a center-left candidate, called for a European Central Bank rate cut in an interview Friday on French radio station Europe 1. "There are two ways we can go. The first is to lower interest rates if we indeed believe this is a way to support growth. And I believe it is, and that the European Central Bank should go in that direction," Hollande said. The second way, he told Europe 1, "would be to lend directly to states themselves, rather than the chosen path, which has been to support the banks." Asked if, as president, he would participate in a U.N.-led military intervention in Syria, Hollande said: "Yes, if it is at the request of the United Nations, we would participate in this intervention." Sarkozy, who has been vocal on the international stage, told Europe 1 on Thursday that France was at the center of diplomatic efforts to put pressure on Syria over its crackdown on dissidents. In an interview Friday with CNN affiliate BFM-TV, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe suggested Hollande was jumping on the bandwagon with regard to Syria. "The problem with Francois Hollande is that in matters of foreign affairs, he is always running behind the train," he said. "France's position has long been known; we will participate in military operations under a U.N. mandate, but when all is said and done, France is not a spectator at the United Nations, it doesn't wait for U.N. decisions; it is a player, it creates solutions and all that's around them, as we have been doing now for weeks and weeks." A survey from CSA for BFM-TV, published Friday, gives Hollande 28% of the vote in the first round to 25% for Sarkozy. If no candidate wins an absolute majority, a runoff election between the two with the most votes will take place May 6. A second round matchup between the two front-runners would see Hollande extend his lead to 57% support, compared with 43% for Sarkozy, the survey suggests.