France's Sarkozy elected chief of right-wing UMP party: official Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was on Saturday elected to lead his conservative UMP opposition party, a key battle in the race to presidential elections in 2017. The 59-year-old beat his two rivals with 64.5 percent of votes to take the head of the bitterly-divided party which has been torn apart by leadership tussles and financial scandals. SOUNDBITE of results announcement.