Race for Paris mayor looks uncertain after first round

Paris, France: The race for Paris mayor looked uncertain on Monday as a right wing former minister hoping to wrest control of the French capital from...

Paris, France: The race for Paris mayor looked uncertain on Monday as a right-wing former minister hoping to wrest control of the French capital from the left claimed she had gained key support for second-round mayoral polls.

Rachida Dati, until recently culture minister, hopes to become the capital's second woman mayor in a row, and bring Paris under control of the right for the first time in 25 years.

Her main rival is Socialist former deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire, who came out well ahead of her in a first round of voting on Sunday.

He scored 37.98 percent of the vote, while she gained 25.46 percent, results showed.

Gregoire has promised to carry on the legacy of outgoing Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, including by increasing the number of bike lanes and green spaces and improving public housing in the densely populated city of two million people.