France votes in first election since Paris attacks

French people on Sunday cast their votes in regional elections, the first electoral test since the deadly November 13 Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed.

Opinion polls have suggested there would be a strong showing for the far-right National Front (FN), BBC reported.

FN leader Marine Le Pen is likely to win in the northern region of Nord-Pas-De-Calais-Picardie, while her niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen is a leading contender in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur in the south.

The centre-right led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to win in most regions at the expense of the governing Socialist Party.

The first round will be followed by a run-off on December 13.
 

 

The election is being held under a state of emergency declared after the Paris attacks, which were claimed by Islamic State (IS) militants.

On Friday, the Belgian prosecutor's office said police were seeking two new suspects accused of aiding key fugitive suspect from the Paris attacks Salah Abdeslam, who lived in Belgium.

The pair are "armed and dangerous" and are thought to have helped Abdeslam travel to Hungary in September.