French Socialists in disarray after leadership vote

By Crispian Balmer

PARIS (Reuters) - Segolene Royal refused to concede defeat on Saturday in a bitter battle to lead France's Socialist party and criticised her rival Martine Aubry for claiming victory when the contested vote was still under review.

Socialist officials said Aubry, architect of the defunct 35-hour work week, defeated her rival Royal by just 0.04 percentage points, or 42 votes, in Friday's ballot of party members.

However, French media reported that at least 18 votes had been wrongly attributed to Aubry and the beleaguered Socialist party said it would review all complaints on Monday before certifying the result on Tuesday.

Royal's supporters accused the Aubry camp of trying to rig the ballot, which risks tearing France's main opposition party in two and looks certain to bolster the position of centre-right President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Aubry made a brief statement on Saturday making clear she considered herself to be the rightful victor and promised to heal the Socialists many self-inflicted wounds.

"I want to be and I will be the first secretary of Socialist party members," she said. "The question is no longer who won or who lost. We will all have lost if we can't quickly unite."

But within hours, the media-savvy Royal appeared on France's main evening news show to say she was not abandoning the fight.

"It is very strange to see a candidate in an election proclaim herself to have won when at the same time a certain number of votes are being recounted," Royal told TF1 television, adding that the only solution was to hold a new vote.