(22 Apr 2012) 1. Communist-backed presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon walking into polling station
2. Melenchon coming out of polling booth
3. Wide of polling station interior with voters, zoom in to Melenchon in queue to cast vote
4. Melenchon shaking hands with election official and handing over voting card, posing for photographs and putting ballot paper in box, zoom in to him signing paper, walking away
5. Melenchon leaving polling station and waving to crowd
STORYLINE
Communist-backed firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon cast his vote in eastern Paris on Sunday in his bid to become the next president of France.
Opinion polls show that many French people are dissatisfied with incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy''s response to concerns about the economy and jobs.
Melenchon, 60, is a charismatic co-president of the Left Front party who has been a surprise star of this campaign with his rousing rallies calling for a new leftist revolution.
His campaign platform is built around rejecting austerity measures and he has criticised US hegemony and military might, looking instead to communist China for partnership.
Polls have put him in fourth place.
Melenchon was elected to the European Parliament in 2009 and was twice a French senator.
His one stint in government came as deputy minister for vocational education in 2000-2002. He was passed over to head the Socialist Party in 1997 by Francois Hollande.
Sunday''s first round vote will select two finalists from a list of 10 candidates from across the political spectrum.
The decisive runoff on May 6 will set France''s political course for the next five years.
Polls for months have showed that the conservative Sarkozy - who has been relatively unpopular for months, if not years - and Francois Hollande, a Socialist, are likely to make the cut.
But with turnout a looming question, surprises could await among candidates including far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen, Melenchon or centrist Francois Bayrou.
While they are not expected to win, a strong performance by one or all of them could cast a shadow over the second round vote.
Polls show the five other candidates are expected to receive low single-digit percentages.
The Interior Ministry was expected to release its first estimates of turnout around midday (1000 GMT).
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