PARIS
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected head of opposition party Union for a Popular Movement, breaking out into France’s political scene ahead of his 2017 presidential bid.
Sarkozy defeated his rivals -- former government ministers Bruno Le Maire and Herve Mariton -- by gaining 64.5 percent of the vote, according to a statement released from headquarters of UMP.
Mr Le Maire received 29.2 percent and MP Herve Mariton 6.3 percent, as 58 percent of the party members turned up to vote.
The online system came under a cyber-attack that slowed down the process, the statement also said.
Sarkozy announced on Sep. 19 his political comeback on his Facebook page, where he said he would run in the 2017 presidential race.
Only days later, a Paris court suspended a graft probe on the former president that had been continuing since July.
Sarkozy retired from politics in 2012 after being defeated by Socialist Francois Hollande.
The UMP had struggled after his resignation and Chairman of French opposition party, Jean-Francois Cope resigned over an 11 million euro fraud during Nicolas Sarkozy's 2012 presidential campaign.
His resignation comes after a lawyer for Bygmalion communications -- the agency responsible for organizing the campaign -- revealed in a press conference that the UMP had told his agency to produce fake invoices to cover up vast over-spending during the campaign.
In March, French media alleged that a subsidiary of Bygmalion, which was founded by two of Cope's associates, had systematically overcharged the UMP to organize campaign events in the run-up to the 2012 election.
Last year, France’s Constitutional Council ruled that Sarkozy had exceeded spending limits for his 2012 election campaign. It said Sarkozy had filed expenses of nearly 23 million euros, 2.1 percent more than is allowed under French law.
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