The PS leadership saga, which was supposed to end early last night with a clear winner in the runoff, is still not over.

In Thursday’s first round, Royal won 42.4% with Aubry taking 34.7% and Hamon at 24%. The Delanoe voters didn’t go massively for Aubry, and it seems like only one-third of them did vote for Aubry, with the rest split between Royal and abstention (although I doubt a third of them abstained. Turnout went from 56 to 59). Hamon endorsed Aubry, both of which are from the left-wing of the PS.

The runoff was held last evening (17:00 to 22:00) between Royal and Aubry. The first results showed that Royal seemed to have run away with it, quite clearly, with something like 52-53. However, the ones saying that were all Royalists. As more votes got counted from the big feds, Aubry narrowed Royal’s margin by a significant margi. Then the Aubry camp claimed victory by about 100 votes, and the Royalists shut up. Early this morning, the PS leadership confirmed these results:

Aubry 67,413 (50.02%)
Royal 67,371 (49.98%)

Turnout was down slightly from 59% on Thursday, but not by much. It was probably helped by the fact that a few feds had runoffs for the local party leadership.

So, Aubry won by around 42 votes nationally. A recount will probably take place, and nobody is actually celebrating Aubry as the “winner” just yet. The Royalists haven’t given up hope and Royal has adopted the “let’s vote again until you give the right answer” strategy and called for a third round (Ukraine 2004 anybody?). Whoever wins (it’ll probably be Aubry), the PS couldn’t have a worse result (though Royal ahead by 42 votes would’ve been bad. The old guard would probably have committed mass suicide). However, once again, I can make a projection. The UMP has won the PS leadership race overwhelmingly. The Besancenot Trots have won too. And maybe even the MoDem (though probably not. Too busy losing members to notice).

The PS hasn’t released results by fed yet (understandably), but some departmental feds have done so.