French off-year voting no hint to '81 election

France voted Sunday in seven off- year parliamentary elections, but the first-round results gave no clear pointers to next spring's presidential vote. None of the National Assembly seats was won outright, and none of next Sunday's runoff elections appears to herald a major surprise.

For well-placed Socialist candidates, all depended on the extent to which Communist voters switched to them in the second round. The Communist Party leadership has been waging a war with the Socialists over left-wing electoral strategy and was not certain to authorize its supporters to back Socialists in the runoff ballots.