PARIS — A partial vote count shows hard-left candidate Benoît Hamon winning the presidential nomination for France’s ruling Socialist Party, comfortably beating ex-Prime Minister Manuel Valls in a primary runoff vote.
The count from 60 percent of the voting stations showed Hamon winning with 58 percent of Sunday’s vote, with around 41 percent for Valls.
Hamon’s win sends the divided Socialists, weakened by the chronic unpopularity of outgoing President François Hollande, into a tough presidential battle behind a candidate with limited government experience and hard-left politics that could alienate some center-left Socialist voters.
JOHN LEICESTER