French vote in the presidential elections

Polling stations opened in the French presidential elections, on Sunday morning, in most regions of the country, to choose one of the 12 candidates competing for the position.

10 April, 2022 06:49

NEWS DESK

French voters cast their votes on Sunday in the first round of the war-affected presidential election in Ukraine, ahead of a possible fierce competition on April 24 in the second round between Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.

Polls opened at 8:00 am (06:00 GMT) in France, and about 48.7 million French people were invited to the polls to choose one of 12 candidates in the first round at the end of a bizarre campaign overshadowed by the COVID_19 pandemic. First, the war in Ukraine dominated some of the discussions.

Some French in foreign countries began voting on Saturday. The first estimates are supposed to be known around 18:00 GMT, after the last polling stations closed.

For weeks, opinion polls have indicated a large abstention, and outgoing President Emmanuel Macron is likely to come out on top, ahead of Marine Le Pen, as in the 2017 elections, while the radical leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon comes in third place.

Several studies tend to show that Le Pen and Mélenchon have been seeing a path of progress over the past few days, dramatically reducing the difference with Emmanuel Macron, who entered the campaign late.

In the second round, polls indicate that Emmanuel Macron will win, albeit by a very narrow margin, over Marine Le Pen, which indicates that a victory for the far-right candidate is possible and sets a double precedent in the Fifth Republic represented by women becoming president and the arrival of the far right to power.

ANHA