French conservative party in turmoil after disputed leadership vote

Paris, NOV. 19 (dpa/GNA) - France's conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) was in turmoil Monday as the two candidates to succeed former president Nicolas Sarkozy as party leader both claimed victory in a contest and accused the other camp of voting fraud.   Jean-Francois Cope, the party's right-wing secretary general, and Francois Fillon, former prime minister under Sarkozy, and a centrist, each rushed to claim victory in Sunday's contest despite the vote count still being underway.   Cope was the first to claim the mantle of party president late Sunday.   "UMP members have given me a majority of their votes today and therefore elected me president of the UMP," the 48-year-old mayor of the town of Meaux near Paris told a group of supporters, saying he looked forward to working "hand in hand" with Fillon.   Shortly thereafter, Fillon announced that he had a 224-vote advantage.   "The results give me a narrow victory," he said, adding he would not let the victory be "stolen," and that the party's internal election commission must verify the winner.   On Monday, the two rivals remained entrenched in their positions, despite appeals by senior party figures for unity.   Former party leader Alain Juppe called on Fillon and Cope to "immediately stop the abuse".   "I'm issuing a real cry of alarm, it's the veritable existence of the UMP which is in jeopardy today, so this confrontation has to stop," he told i-Tele channel.   Laurent Wauquiez, Sarkozy's former education minister, who backed Fillon for leader, admitted to France Inter radio that the party had covered itself in "ridicule."   Early Monday the election commissioned resumed the count which had been suspended during the night. Around 300,000 people were eligible to vote. Turnout appeared to have been brisk with people waiting for three hours in some places to cast their ballot.   The eventual victor will lead the party into local elections in 2014 and be in a strong position to win the party's nomination for president in 2017.   Polls ahead of the vote had consistently show Fillon as the favourite of UMP supporters but the combative Cope had warned of a surprise when paid-up party members were asked to choose.   The two men agree on many issues, including their opposition to gay marriage, but represent different visions for the party's future.   Fillon believes the best chance of winning back power from President Francois Hollande's Socialists is by repositioning the UMP as a centre-right party.   Cope, by contrast, has called for an "uninhibited right."   Hanging over the election is the ghost of Sarkozy, who is still popular among UMP supporters.   For the conservative Le Figaro daily, the real winner of the election are those who want Sarkozy to make a comeback.   "They couldn't have hoped for better than a bitter legitimacy battle between the two contenders to succeed him to create the conditions for his return," the paper wrote. GNA  ... Read Full Story