In France, the second ballot of the Socialist party’s (PS) primary election was held on Sunday. The primary was held to choose the party’s candidate for the 2012 presidential election. Here is the result:

François Hollande, 56.4%
Martine Aubry, 43.6%

Around 2.7 million people voted.

In between the two rounds, all of the eliminated first-round candidates announced that they would vote for François Hollande, even though polls suggested their supporters would not necessarily all follow this recommendation.

The polls show that Hollande and Sarkozy are, at this stage, likely to qualify for the second ballot of the presidential election next year and that Hollande will beat Sarkozy by up to 60-40. In the end, I expect Hollande to win but the result to be a little closer, all else equal!

I am tweeting the French presidential election. If you want to follow events there, then please follow me on Twitter @robertelgie