POINCARE LEADS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 337, 24 April 1928, Page 11

POINCARE LEADS

ELECTIONS IN FRANCE HOW PARTIES STAND (United P.A.—By Telegraph—Cop y right) (Australian Press Association) Reed. 9.5 a.m. PARIS, Monday. In the elections 175 candidates were elected in the first ballot, of whom Democratic Republicans took 72, Left Republicans 41, Radical Republicans 15, Radical Socialists 16, Republican Socialists 4, Socialists 14, Conservatives 13, Communists 0. The second ballots for the remaining 427 seats will take place on April 29. The majority of the successful candidates have declared themselves supporters of the Government’s policy. The first day’s balloting in the gen eral election on Sunday passed off very calmly, contrasting with the violence displayed on Saturday, when numerous disturbances took place over a wide area. Modern French polling is largely of a holiday character, affording a universal opportunity for the family promenade. Polling day had its humorous side. A Communist candidate’s poster read “Vote for nobody, least of all for me.” The failure of M. Bokanowsky. Minister of Air, to adequately support Captains Costes and Lebrix in their round-the-world flight led to stormy scenes in his constituency, the crowds shouting “A bas Boke!” The poll was a heavy one, 11.000, e0n people voting. There were 3,750 candidates. The ratio of occupations among these candidates was; Barristers, 385; journalists, 266; workers, 200; farmers, 186; doctors, 159; teachers, 90: bankers, 8; priests, 7. Of the members of the Cabinet, MM. Briand (Foreign Minister), Herriot (Education) and Tardieu (Public Works) have been returned. M. Painleve (War) was not elected outright, but secured sufficient votes to entitle him to enter the second ballot.