Right-winger Copé wins Sarkozy party leadership in cliff-hanger result

Controversial right-winger Jean-François Copé has won the leadership of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party in a cliff-hanger result following this weekend's vote by party members.

Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

Copé, who was secretary general, defeated favoured former prime minister François Fillon to become party president with 50.03 per cent of the vote.

The poll was plagued by allegations of fraud on both sides and decided after recounts with observers from both camps.

"The UMP’s membership has accorded me a majority of their votes and therefore has elected me as the president of the party," Copé announced at the party’s headquarters in Paris on Monday night.

The internal electoral body of the conservative opposition confirmed its new right-leaning party president six months after Sarkozy’s defeat in this year's presidential election.

Around 175,000 UMP members cast votes and Fillon's supporters originally claimed he won by 244, while Copé’s camp claimed a victory of more than 100.

Both sides claimed "irregularities" with allegations more votes were counted than registered but Fillon has confirmed he will not contest the result.

“What strikes me is the rift at the heart of our political camp, a political and moral fracture,” Fillon said after the result was announced.

“It is obvious that whoever is elected president of the UMP will have no legitimacy whatsoever, given that he will be in charge of a party broken in two,” the deputy leader of the far-right Front National Florian Philipott said.

Copé is seen as an advocate of free-market policies, economic reform and tighter immigration control.

He recently hit the headlines with claims that "anti-white racism" is on the rise in France.