France24:
Jean-François Copé has been declared the new leader of the opposition Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) by the party’s internal electoral body after a contested weekend vote that was plagued by allegations of fraud on both sides.
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right opposition UMP voted for its next leader in a Sunday poll that pitted former prime minister François Fillon against the UMP’s Secretary General Copé in a campaign that split the party and sparked widespread derision.
Both camps claimed “irregularities” in some voting offices — where there were more votes were counted than registered voters — and said they would contest the result.