French president looks for new election win

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PARIS, Jun 9 (AFP): French voters overseas cast the first ballots Saturday in a parliamentary election predicted to hand a resounding majority to President Nicolas Sarkozy and his ambitious reform programme.
Just a month after the right-winger's victory over the Socialist Segolene Royal in the presidential race, voters return to the polls nationwide Sunday to choose the 577 members of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.
The first votes were to be cast Saturday by the roughly 700,000 citizens of French overseas territories as well as expatriates in the Americas, who go to the polls 24 hours ahead of mainland France.
The tiny French dependency of St Pierre and Miquelon-a group of islands off Canada's Atlantic coast with just 5,000 registered voters-kicks off the election at 1000 GMT, followed by the territories of the French Caribbean.