Book says rigged party vote for French Socialists

Paris, Sep 10- A new book alleges that a vote last year to elect the leader of France's Socialist Party was rigged, sparking further disarray among the once-mighty champions of the left.

The fallout has given conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy a lot of political breathing room and means the squabbling Socialists will have to figure out how to unite before they can mount any credible challenge to him.
The book by journalists Antonin Andre and Karim Rissouli, whose title translates as Hold-Ups, Swindles and Treasons, hit store shelves today after the weekly Le Point published excerpts online a day earlier.

It examines the Socialists' runoff vote in November between former Labour Minister Martine Aubry and Segolene Royal, the Socialist candidate who lost to Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential race.

Aubry won the 2008 party balloting by just 102 votes - out of nearly 135,000 cast.
The book quotes an Aubry political director, Guillaume Blanc, as telling a secretary in the party's office in the northern city of Lille - where Aubry is mayor - to tinker with the vote.

Off with the gloves, stuff the ballot boxes, he was quoted as saying twice to the unidentified secretary.