Marine Le Pen to withhold vote in French presidential runoff.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has told supporters she will not vote for either of the two candidates in Sunday's presidential runoff.

The head of the Front National said she had no confidence in Nicolas Sarkozy or the Socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, and would cast a blank vote.

She advised the 6.4 million voters who gave her party a record score of nearly 18% of the vote in the first round of the election 10 days ago to follow their conscience.

At a rally near the statue of the Front National's symbolic heroine Joan of Arc at Place de l'Op'ra, in central Paris, the crowd chanted: "Sarko, Hollande, …