Exotic holidays, computers and expensive watches await French voters who can solve the electoral enigma confounding the nation—how do you tell a bunch of bland presidential candidates apart? To help readers bewildered by fuzzy policies and enliven the dreariest presidential election campaign in decades, a French newspaper has challenged readers to a who's who mystery candidate quiz called "the enigma of the day." "This campaign isn't much fun," Martine Leveille, sales representative at financial daily Les Echos told reporters. "We wanted to create a bit of interest. And since the candidates aren't doing a very good job of explaining their own policies we thought we'd help them out." The first round of voting for 16 candidates takes place ealier, with the runoff poll between the two top contenders—expected to be conservative President Jacques Chirac and Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, on May 5. The daily contest asks readers to match policy sound bites like "Destroy and rebuild a million apartments in 20 years" to the right candidate. (Psst—it was Chirac!) Pollsters reckon a record number of voters, turned off by a lack of clear policy distinctions between Chirac and Jospin, will stay away from polling stations in the first round of voting. "People think the candidates are all the same," Leveille said. "The distinctions are there, although, admittedly, they're not that obvious."

　　法国选民可望得到国外假期、电脑及名贵手表等奖励，只要他们能解决困扰着整个国家的选举谜题——如何把一帮毫无特色的总统候选人区分开来？为了帮助被各种扑朔迷离的施政纲领搞得晕头转向的读者，同时给数十年来最乏味的一次总统竞选增添生气，法国一家报纸向读者推出了名为“今日之谜”的神秘候选人竞猜游戏。“这次竞选没什么意思，”财经日报《回声报》销售代表马丁·勒维尔对记者说。“我们想活跃一下气氛。此外，鉴于这些候选人没有把自己的施政纲领解释得很明白，我们觉得应该帮帮他们。”对16位参选者的第一轮投票早些时候举行，而支持率最高的两位候选人——估计会是属于保守党的总统雅克·希拉克和属于社会党的总理莱昂内尔·若斯潘——之间的最后决战将在5月5日进行。每天进行的竞猜游戏要求读者把关于政策的简短广播讲话与相应的候选人对上号，比如像“在20年内推倒并重建100万套公寓”这样的话。(嘘——这是希拉克说的！)据民意测验专家估计，由于希拉克和若斯潘所主张的政策并无明显差别，不参加第一轮投票的选民将达到空前的数目。“人们认为所有候选人都一样，”勒维尔说。“实际上他们还是有区别的，尽管区别的确不那么明显。”

　　Remarks：看来法国的政治家们作秀的功夫还不到家，比较起来，在美国上演的同题材大戏就要热闹和刺激得多。

　　(图片说明)Newly Elected French President Jacques Chirac新当选的法国总统雅克·希拉克