High turnout in French center-right primaries, up from first round

Thierry Solere, president of the committee organizing the Les Republicains party vote, told reporters on Sunday that the turnout stood at more than 2.9 million at 5 pm (1600 GMT), with 78 percent of polling stations taken into account.

Former prime minister Francois Fillon won the first round, putting him in pole position to beat Alain Juppe - another former prime minister and current mayor of Bordeaux - and become the center-right Les Republicains presidential candidate.

The final turnout for the first round stood at around 4 million voters.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Ingrid Melander)