Hollande wins French election

(Reuters) - Socialist candidate Francois Hollande won France's presidential election runoff on Sunday, beating President Nicolas Sarkozy by a clear margin, according to projections by pollsters.

Polling institutes predicted Hollande would win between 51.8 and 52.0 percent of the vote versus Sarkozy's tally of between 48.0 and 48.2 percent.

Hollande, who had led conservative incumbent Sarkozy in polls for months, would become France's first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand left office in 1995.