France Prepares for First Online Primary

PARIS -- France's governing party is gearing up for the country's first Web-based primary, in a presidential campaign during which the Internet has acquired unprecedented importance.

The UMP party primary, which begins Tuesday, is not likely to be a nail biter: With only one candidate, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, on the virtual ballot, the outcome of the 10-day vote is all but certain.

Still, UMP leaders are hoping the online primary _ which is open only to its 330,000 members _ will mark a break with political convention and give the party an aura of tech-savvy modernity.

The conservative UMP is not the sole party to make the Internet a key element of its campaign in the run-up to France's two-round presidential elections in April and May. The opposition Socialists and also the extreme-right National Front, led by 78-year-old Jean-Marie Le Pen, have also relied heavily on their Web sites to seduce voters and pump up party ranks.

Though many French parties were on the Web in the last presidential elections in 2002, the impact of political sites has skyrocketed during this campaign, helping change the way politics are done here.

Socialist candidate Segolene Royal has made her Web site the cornerstone of a campaign based on what she calls "participative democracy," with users invited to take part in a host of online forums and debates. Royal, a former minister, drew on online feedback in drafting her platform, which she released chapter by chapter on the Web site.

"Politics must be based on the realities of people's lives," Royal has said.

UMP members have been issued security codes that allow them to access the polls on its Web site, though it would be hard to throw a race with only one candidate. France has recently been roiled by a high-profile hacking of the computers at a French anti-doping lab, where analysis of samples from the American cyclist Floyd Landis indicated he had used illegal substances to win last year's Tour de France.

A message from Sarkozy on a UMP Blog site urges party members to cast their online ballots and calls on users to "participate in the political dialogue and become an agent for change."

Far-right National Front party leader Le Pen has also embraced the power of the Internet. Le Pen _ who has been convicted six times of racism or anti-Semitism _ is reaching out to supporters in a series of videos posted on his Web site.

Most of France's 40 million voters are not party members and thus not eligible to vote in primaries.

Recent opinion polls show Royal and Sarkozy running neck-and-neck, with Le Pen, who shocked the world by making it to the second round of the 2002 presidential race, coming in third.

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On the Web:

UPM party Web site: http://www.u-m-p.org

Socialist candidate Segolene Royal's Web site: http://www.desirsdavenir.org

National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen's Web site: http://www.lepen2007.fr