French Twitter-sphere gets around ban with Second World War code Only two of the 10 candidates in Sunday's first ballot go through to a run-off on May 6, in which the conservative Sarkozy is expected to meet the centre-left Hollande, clear favourite in opinion polls. Twitter users had a field day concocting new names for candidates, imaginary news headlines of outcomes and officially unverifiable reports of partial results from remote overseas territories where voting took place on Saturday. "According to observers returning from Syria, Russian tanks left at dawn, due to arrive in Paris at 20h (8pm)," read one entry, alluding to a possible left-wing victory and closing time at polling stations. Other aliases for Mr Hollande included "Gouda," the "Flan," a caramel pudding that resembles one of his nicknames, and more transparently, "Rose of Correze," combining the Socialist colour with Mr Hollande's rural constituency in central France. For Mr Sarkozy, they included "platform heels," a reference to Sarkozy's penchant for shoes that give the diminutive president a few extra centimetres in photographs, "Rolex" in a nod to his taste for flashy wrist wear, and "Goulash," a Hungarian recipe. "Daddy's girl" clearly alluded to far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who took over from her father Jean-Marie last year as head of the anti-immigration National Front. Firebrand leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon was branded "hot red pepper" by one micro-message sender. Some messages relayed unofficial partial results or send-ups of result headlines, using candidates' real names, but with their scores blotted out or drowned in a jumble of numbers and characters. Polling institutes traditionally prepare reliable estimates for their clients, TV and radio stations, in the two hours between polling stations closing in most areas at 6pm (1600 GMT) and the late closers in the big cities, opening up a gap when information can leak. Among the myriad messages with a wartime ring were ones that mocked Sarkozy for his 2007 post-victory cruise aboard the private yacht of multi-millionaire businessman Vincent Bollore. "Pink wave turns to tsunami, Bollore yacht in difficulty," said one.