Macron sails through in 1st round of presidential election ahead of far-right candidate Le Pen

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - French President Emmanuel Macron is leading the presidential race with a margin of 28% votes followed by far-right candidate Marine Le Pen with 24.5%, according to the first results of an exit poll announced on Sunday.

As the final voting ended at 8.00 p.m. local time (1800 GMT), several exit polls projected Macron of the Republic on the Move (LAREM) party in the lead over Le Pen of the National Front.

According to an IPSOS exit poll for France24 news, Macron received 28.1% of the vote, against Le Pen’s 23.3%. Elabe estimates for BFMTV and l'Express showed Macron at 28.5% and Le Pen at 24.2%.

Both Macron and Le Pen have scored better points than their performance in 2017 when he had obtained 24.01% votes ahead of Le Pen’s 21.30%.

Macron and Le Pen are predicted to face-off in the fierce second round, which will be held on April 24.

Left wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon of the far-left Unsubmissive France, is in the third position with 19%-20% of the vote share, according to the two polls.

Surprisingly, Reconquest party’s Eric Zemmour (7%), who is contesting for the French presidency for the first time, has scored over experienced candidate of The Republicans party Valerie Pecresse (5%).

The total turnout has been dismal, with a large number of voters shunning the ballot.

Nearly 26% of the 48.7 million registered voters are estimated to have abstained from participating in the voting process. This is the lowest turnout since 2002 when the first-round abstention rate was 27.16% in 2002.