There were three rivals on the centre-left, two on the centre-right, four Trotskyists, three shades of green, two deadly enemies on the far right and an assortment of 13 others, including the Party of Pleasure

Down the block they stretched for 20 yards. There were 27 contenders for a single seat in this constituency, the most crowded ballot paper in France.The electors were, by comparison, thin on the ground. Some gazed in bafflement at the boards, as if still trying to make up their minds whom they should vote for. Others strode into the polling station – a primary school – without a glance at the visual cacophony outside.One 53-year-old woman, Catherine, said: “It’s ridiculous and confusing.

It’s become like one of those guessing games on the television. I think I’ve voted for the right person, in all conscience, but I may wake up tomorrow and see that, tactically, it might have been better to vote for someone else.”The story was the same all over France in the first round of the parliamentary elections yesterday: a dangerous mismatch of supply and demand; a surplus of candidates and a shortage of voters.Partly because of generous campaign subsidies, there were 8,444 candidates, 30 per cent more than in the last election five years ago. Yet again, a French election produced a surprise but this time it was a pleasant one. For the first time, in this election, they over-estimated it.Even if you add Jean-Marie Le Pen’s projected share of the national vote – 11.2 per cent – to the derisory score 1.3 per cent for the breakaway far-right National Movement of Bruno Megret, the total vote for the extreme right (12.5 per cent) was the lowest in a national election for nine years.

The NF had hoped to survive into next week’s second round in more than 200 constituencies. Early projections last night suggested they would be eliminated in all but 30 to 50 seats.This is not the first time that the far right vote has lurched downwards but yesterday’s score will come as a relief to many in France after the internal divisions – and international obloquy – generated by Mr Le Pen’s success in the presidential election in April.French voters showed their continuing disgust with mainstream politics in other ways yesterday – by failing to vote at all, or by scattering their votes over the record field of marginal and self-proclaimed mainstream candidates. The low turnout will still mean the elimination of many mainstream candidates, causing some lop-sided contests in the second round next week between the far right and one other surviving contender of centre-right or left. But, for the first time, taking the country as a whole, it was the far right which failed to get out its vote.The record low turn-out of 64 per cent might have been expected to magnify the National Front vote, as it still did in some of its strongholds in the north, east and south.The National Front still managed to top the poll in scores of constituencies in its heartlands in the north, east and south but is not expected to win more than two seats next week and may win none.

This suggests that the high vote for Mr Le Pen in April, and even the 18 per cent that he got in the second round of the presidential elections, was largely a protest vote, rather than a permanent shift in French attitudes towards the anti- immigrant, anti-Semitic, anti-European ultra right.Although a comprehensive victory for President Jacques Chirac’s centre-right now seems certain in the second round next week, the seemingly scattered and dispirited left did somewhat better than expected. Whether this will be enough to preserve the new socialist leader, Francois Hollande’s chances of emerging as the new dominant figure on the French left is unclear.One significant result was the historically low score of the once powerful French Communist Party, which scored only just over 4 per cent and may not emerge with the 20 seats it needs to remain a separate group in parliament.. President Jacques Chirac’s centre-right scored a resounding victory ­ and the far-right slumped dramatically ­ in the first round of the French parliamentary elections yesterday. The left is predicted to emerge with between 175 and 135 seats and the NF, at most, with only two.Mr Raffarin said: “I am aware of the size of the task ahead. What is needed is tenacity, solidarity and efficiency.” His government has already promised an immediate 5 per cent cut in income tax and a crackdown on crime.The Socialist leader, Fran?s Hollande, said that France faced a “major risk” of the centre-right being over-dominant in the new parliament, with “all the power to carry out” its “dangerous” policies. He appealed to left-wing voters at least to reduce the majority of the right in the second round.Mr Le Pen appeared stunned by the poor performance of his party, so soon after he shocked France and the world by eliminating the Socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin, and breaking through to the second round of the presidential elections.He challenged the accuracy of the projected figures and accused “Communist-dominated” unions of blocking the delivery of NF campaign material in some areas.His party had hoped to fight the second round in as many as 200 constituencies.