Royal's gender the main draw for French voters-poll

FRANCE: Segolene Royal's chief attraction for French voters is that she is a woman, according to a poll conducted after she was selected as the Socialist Party's presidential candidate.

Thirty seven percent of those surveyed cited Royal's gender as her most positive factor ahead of the 2007 election, according to the Ipsos poll released on Saturday.

The figure was even higher, at 41 percent, among sympathisers of the opposition Socialists. Royal won more than 60 percent of the vote in Thursday's Socialist primary.

Asked if Royal's nomination would make life more complicated for the right, particularly the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told Journal du Dimanche newspaper:

"More complicated perhaps for the men. One doesn't treat a female adversary in the same way that one treats a male one. Some men will have to change their style and so much the better."

UMP leader and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is strongly tipped to be the right's candidate in the election.

Alliot-Marie said the results of the primary showed the Socialists were ready to change but said Royal now faced a tough task.

"Segolene Royal will have to explain her project and not just simply cut and paste opinion polls," she told the Sunday newspaper according to an advance copy of the interview.

Royal has presented herself as a force for change and a fresh face willing to listen to the concerns of ordinary people but such considerations did not rank highly in the poll.

Twenty one percent said they were mainly attracted by Royal because she represented a renewal of the left while 18 percent said it was because they believed she was the only one capable of beating Sarkozy.

Recent polls show Royal running neck-and-neck with Sarkozy. The Ipsos poll surveyed 801 people on Nov. 17 and 18.

Paris, Sunday, Reuters.