Paris ? Setting the stage for a suspenseful presidential race, French President Jacques Chirac announced Sunday that he would not run for a third term after 12 years in office and 40 years in politics.

The announcement by Chirac, 74, was not a surprise. His popularity has sunk as the result of economic and political malaise, urban riots, corruption scandals and electoral setbacks. But the decision cast a sharp focus on his longtime dominance of politics here as president, prime minister and mayor of Paris, and his rollercoaster relationship with voters.

“I will not seek your votes for a new term,” Chirac said in a nationally televised address. “(But) I will continue to press the struggles that are all of ours, the struggles of my whole life, for justice, for progress, for peace, for the greatness of France.”

Chirac’s move came after months of refusing to rule out a bid and flirting with fielding his own intraparty challenger to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, 52, of his ruling center-right movement.

Other candidates include Francois Bayrou, 54, a longshot centrist preaching pragmatism and unity, who has unexpectedly pulled even in polls with Segolene Royal, 53, of the opposition Socialists, and not far behind Sarkozy.

Far-right maverick Jean-Marie Le Pen, 78, retains enough support to influence the outcome five years after he upset the Socialists and then lost the runoff to Chirac.