PARIS - France's opinion pollsters were licking their wounds for the second time in two years yesterday, having totally failed to foresee the clear lead won by the left wing opposition in the first round of voting.
Pre-vote polls had placed left and right roughly equal on 39 to 40 per cent, with the right likely to gain a parliamentary majority of 50 to 70 seats.
In the presidential elections of April-May 1995, the polls were similarly adrift in failing to predict that Socialist candidate Mr Jospin would lead the field in the first round.
Since then the main opinion polling institutes have insisted on the precarity of their findings, warning that a single percentage point error could result in getting the tally in seats wrong by as many as 30 seats.