Row over French Socialist Party leadership continues

Paris - The French Socialist Party on Monday began trying to resolve an ugly factional row that grew out of a disputed election for a new party leader. A special party committee began examining complaints about the vote count that resulted in a victory of 42 votes out of 137,000 cast, or a margin of 0.04 per cent, for Lille Mayor Martine Aubry over former presidential candidate Segolene Royal in Friday's election. Since the results were made official early Saturday, several regional party officials have pointed out problems to party headquarters, including errors in the transmission of vote counts or in the counting itself. Based on the outcome of the commission's work, the party's national council - which is largely in the hands of Aubry's allies - will issue a final decision on Tuesday. The commission will then either name Aubry the party's first-ever female leader or, as Royal has demanded, call for another round of voting. In the meantime, the party infighting has grown more tense. A Royal advisor, Evry Mayor Manuel Valls, has said he would file a legal complaint for fraud against a Socialist district office in Lille that, he charged, falsified the results in Aubry's favour. In response, the head of the Lille regional faction of the Socialist Party, Gilles Pargneaux, said he would sue Valls for slander. Results from several other regions of France have also been called into question. Both Royal and Aubry aides have charged that the names of deceased party members appeared on ballots, that signatures and vote counts were falsified and that party officials in some regions, such as the overseas territory of Guadaloupe, simply stuffed the ballot boxes. The intensity of the dispute has opened the party to harsh criticism and even mockery, with the left-leaning daily Liberation using on its title page a play on the party's initials SP, 'Suicidal Party.' According to a poll by the Opinionway institute, 71 per cent of the French and 67 per cent of Socialist Party supporters believe that the party has been weakened by the quarreling.