Disgraced IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn voted Sunday in France's first-round presidential election, a race that he had been tipped to win before he became embroiled in a string of sex scandals.
The former Socialist party presidential hopeful voted at a primary school in Sarcelles, north of Paris, appearing smiling and relaxed before a large group of waiting photographers but did not make any comment.
Opinion polls said Strauss-Kahn was favourite to beat incumbent right-winger President Nicolas Sarkozy in the election before the then-IMF boss was arrested for alleged sexual assault in a New York hotel last May.
The case against him collapsed, but it cost him his shot at the Socialist presidential nomination and triggered a series of scandalous revelations.
Since then Strauss-Kahn has been implicated in a prostitution ring probe in northern France, although the 62-year-old has insisted that he was unaware that women at the numerous orgies he took part in were prostitutes.
After Strauss-Kahn's fall from grace, Francois Hollande won the Socialist Party's primary nomination and polls predict he will narrowly beat Sarkozy in the first round and in a May 6 run-off.
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