Members of Ump Angers look to have given priority to unity over divisions on election day

As 300 000 members of the Union pour la majorité présidentielle (Ump), the Maine-et-Loire supporters voted on November 18th for the future president of the movement : François Fillon, former prime minister of Nicolas sarkozy presidency or Jean-François Copé, past president of the movement. Waiting for the national results of the ballot, members of the Ump in Maine-et-Loire, most of them youngs, gathered quietly at the party office on Rabelais street, drinking (in moderation) while a tv set displayed the sport results of the weekend. The office saw comings and goings of some proeminent representatives of the movement in Maine- et-Loire.

The political party had opened a ballot station in all the consti-tuencies of the department, every member of the Ump having to vote in the constituency where he lives. It was also possible to vote with a proxy form. If he aggressive arguments exchanged all day long between the supporters of Fillon and Copé, didn't not resurfaced in Rabelais street where the atsmophere looked rather friendly and dispassionate, that was not alway the case sometimes among members of the same (real, not political) family.

The pratical details of the ballots was sometimes criticized. Some of the sympathizers of the Ump were suprised not to receive an invitation to join the party while they followed the meetings of former French president Sarkozy. According to observers of the Ump, the results could be close in Maine-et-Loire where the political party lost two of the constituencies it held till may 2012.