Presidential Elections

Is it Tuesday yet? Even the most patriotic of us might be feeling election fatigue this week. Campaigns generally are messy affairs, with stories that keep changing and endings that never seem to come, and the Obama-McCain battle has been no different. But that's not the case when Hollywood directs a political race. In the movies, candidates make clever speeches, the bad guys get their due and things are wrapped up in a couple of hours.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy accepted the presidential nomination of the ruling center-right party Sunday, promising to break with the past and setting up a high-stakes campaign that is likely to open a new era in French politics. The overwhelming vote by members of the Union for a Popular Movement party culminated a drive by Sarkozy that overcame an intraparty rift with an old guard loyal to President Jacques Chirac, 74, who has been in office since 1995.

Forget the jokes about caucusing in brothels, or trawling for votes amid the slot machines and blackjack tables along the neon-drenched Strip. When Democratic presidential hopefuls come calling on Nevada, the real challenge will be the party faithful they find in this independent-minded state, which will host the West's first nominating contest in a little over a year.

Turkmenistan's acting president overwhelmingly won an election pitting him against five other members of the country's only legal political party, the head of the central elections commission said. Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov won 89.23% of Sunday's vote, commission director Murad Karyyev said. It was the first time Turkmenistan held a presidential election with more than one candidate. Berdimukhamedov became interim president after the Dec. 21 death of Saparmurad A.

The Federal Election Commission said Thursday that presidential candidates may accept private contributions for potential general election campaigns and still remain eligible for public financing if they ultimately win their party's nomination. The ruling came after a request for clarification from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.

Californians will choose presidential candidates in February, not June, under a proposal that cleared the Legislature on Tuesday and that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign. Legislative leaders say an earlier primary will give California some influence in selecting the next president and force candidates to address issues such as immigration that don't resonate in Iowa and New Hampshire, where voting will take place in January. Whether five states or 20 hold their primaries Feb.

Setting the stage for a suspenseful presidential race, French President Jacques Chirac announced Sunday that he would not run for a third term after 12 years in office and 40 years in politics. The announcement by Chirac, 74, was not a surprise. His popularity has sunk as the result of economic and political malaise, urban riots, corruption scandals and electoral setbacks.

This pleasant, slightly faded city of palm trees and sea breezes has been shaped by migratory currents: workers from North Africa, middle-class retirees from Lyon and Paris, elderly French who fled Algeria after the former colony won independence. The sometimes uneasy Mediterranean mix makes Nice a bastion of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right candidate who has emerged once again as a major force with a week to go before the first round of the French presidential race.

Setting up an electoral showdown that will bring a new generation to power in France, Nicolas Sarkozy of the ruling center-right party and Socialist Segolene Royal beat 10 other presidential candidates Sunday in a first-round vote. A May 6 runoff will pit Sarkozy, a 52-year-old former interior and economy minister, against Royal, a 53-year-old former environment minister who aspires to be France's first female president.