Hala Gorani: Chirac landslide expected

CNN's Hala Gorani

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Incumbent Jacques Chirac is expected to defeat far-right opponent Jean-Marie Le Pen in France's runoff presidential election Sunday.

But CNN Correspondent Hala Gorani, who is following the election from Paris, said pollsters believe Le Pen could still garner a substantial number of votes.

GORANI: This is the choice facing French voters [Sunday]: You've either got Jacques Chirac, the incumbent candidate, or Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right stunner -- really the surprise victor in the first round who came in second, beating out mainstream, left-wing politician Lionel Jospin.

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There are 41 million registered voters in France, and 11 million of them abstained in the first round. The big question is how many of those voters who abstained in the first round will come out and vote for Jacques Chirac in order to prevent Jean-Marie Le Pen from gaining a substantial percentage of the electorate.

Right now what we're seeing is that voter percentage is not that high in the second round. It's actually lower than in the second round in 1995. That was the last time France went to the voting stations in order to elect a president for the second round.

France has been in a state of shock trying to explain how the 73-year-old extreme-right leader managed to make it in the presidential runoff in France, beating out, as I said, Lionel Jospin, who has been prime minister of this country for the last five years.

Polls here in France indicate Jacques Chirac should win by a landslide. However, there could be another surprise, some pollsters say. We could see Jean-Marie Le Pen perhaps achieving a very high score, maybe a third of the electorate. If that happens, that will once again potentially plunge France into another climate of social dismay.

Also, remember the 6th and the 19th of June, [France has] parliamentary elections, and what happens then is also very important. If left-wing parties win, we'll have another period of cohabitation -- that very French way of leading the country where you can have a prime minister from the left and a president from the right.