PARIS — French Socialist François Hollande finished first in the initial round of presidential elections, ahead of President Nicolas Sarkozy, while extreme-right leader Marine LePen came in third with an unexpectedly high vote total.

Garnering more than 28 per cent of the vote, Hollande leads over Sarkozy, the incumbent president and conservative leader, who received about 26 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s poll.

Hollande and Sarkozy will face each other in the second round of the election on May 6. According to the latest polls, Hollande could defeat Sarkozy by a comfortable margin.

Le Pen, head of the National Front, the country’s largest extreme-right party, achieved a historic tally, garnering 18.5 per cent of the vote, the highest reportedly ever achieved by the movement. Le Pen improved on the vote tally of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2002, who garnered a little less than 17 per cent of voters, but was able to reach the second round of the election against Jacques Chirac.

The National Front vote tally is alarming, the French Union of Jewish Students said. “Today, more than 7.2 million French citizens have voted for an extreme-right candidate, who openly preaches hatred. They already were 5.4 million in 2002. We are very worried, especially because Marine Le Pen seems to be very popular among young voters,” the union’s president, Jonathan Hayoun, said in a statement.

The results of the first round were disappointing for two other candidates. Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon earned a little more than 11 per cent of first-round votes, a showing that did not meet his expectations. Centrist François Bayrou, who appeared as the “third man” during the last presidential race, did not reach nine per cent of the vote this time. The turnout for the election was quite high, with about 80 per cent of the 44.5 million registered voters going to the polls. However, it was lower than the 2007 ballot, when 84 per cent of the electorate participated.