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The polls were carried out after the candidates' only debate Wednesday night, which Sarkozy had hoped would be the knockout blow he needed. Hollande has won the support of a prominent centrist who won 9 percent of the vote in the first round of presidential elections, Francois Bayrou. Bayrou said Thursday night he would not give his voters specific guidance for Sunday's vote
-- but that he will cast a ballot for Hollande. Bayrou criticized Sarkozy's campaign rhetoric as too violent. Sarkozy has sought to lure far-right voters who supported anti-immigrant candidate Marine Le Pen in the first round. Sarkozy kept it up anyway Thursday at a big campaign rally in Toulon. "We don't want different tribes, we don't want ethnic communities to turn in on themselves, we don't want (non-citizen) immigrants to vote," he said. Critics of Sarkozy have often faulted him for his brash style, alleged chumminess with the rich and inability to reverse France's tough economic fortunes and nearly double-digit jobless rate. Hollande has promised more government spending and higher taxes -- including a 75-percent income tax on the rich
-- and wants to renegotiate a European treaty on trimming budgets to avoid more debt crises of the kind facing Greece.
[Associated
Press;
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