Presidential polls: Macron vs Le Pen as French vote
French voters headed to the polls yesterday for the presidential run-off between centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron and his challenger Marine Le Pen, after a fractious campaign that has seen the far right come its closest yet to winning power.
Macron went into the election with a stable lead in opinion polls, an advantage he consolidated in the frenetic final days of campaigning, including a no-holds-barred performance in the pre-election debate.
But analysts have cautioned that Macron, who rose to power in 2017 aged 39 as the country's youngest-ever modern leader, can take nothing for granted given forecasts of low turnout that could sway the result in either direction.
Turnout figures for the second round of presidential election yesterday showed a 63.23 percent participation rate by 5:00 pm (1500 GMT), the interior ministry said, below the 65.30 percent recorded at the same time in the 2017 election.
Polls opened at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) and were set to close at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT). Initial projections by pollsters were expected after polls closed.
Lucien Chameroy, 80, said he "didn't hesitate at all" after casting his ballot in Dijon, eastern France.
"There's a lot at stake, and I think people don't realise that if you don't vote, it's the street that decides, and it's a minority that takes power," he told AFP.
Le Pen beamed as she greeted supporters before casting her ballot in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, a stronghold of her National Rally party, while Macron worked a crowd of several hundreds before voting with his wife Brigitte in the Channel resort town of Le Touquet.
Macron in particular is hoping that left-wing voters who backed other candidates in the first round on April 10 will support the former investment banker and his pro-business, reformist agenda to stop Le Pen and her populist programme.
But far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who scored a close third-place finish in the first round, has pointedly refused to urge his millions of followers to back Macron while insisting they should not vote for Le Pen.
Macron himself repeatedly made clear that the complacency of stay-at-home voters precipitated the shocks of the 2016 elections that led to Brexit in Britain and Donald Trump's election in the United States.
Analysts have forecast that abstention rates could reach 26 to 28 percent, though the 1969 record for a second-round abstention rate of 31.1 percent is not expected to be beaten.
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