China News Agency, Paris, April 10 (Reporter Li Yang) On April 10, local time, the first round of voting in the 2022 French presidential election officially began.

  Polling stations in mainland France opened to voters at 8:00 am local time on the 10th (2:00 pm Beijing time on the 10th).

People went to the polling station to vote.

Polling stations in Paris and other places will close at 8 p.m. that day, and the first exit polls will be released later.

Preliminary results are expected to be released late that night.

Voters in some French overseas territories and French voters abroad have voted early.

  According to the list of candidates for the presidential election announced by the French Constitutional Council, the 12 candidates participating in this election include the ruling party "Republic Forward" candidate, the current President Macron, and the far-right party "National League" candidate Marine Le Pen , Zemour, candidate of the far-right party to "recover lost ground", Pecres, presidential candidate of the French Republican Party and chairman of the Paris Regional Assembly, presidential candidate of the French Socialist Party and mayor of Paris, Hidalgo, candidate of the far-left party "Unyielding France" Melenchon et al.

  By noon that day, the main candidates had completed voting.

Macron voted in the town of Le Touquet in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France and had a brief exchange with local voters; Marine Le Pen voted in the town of Henan-Beaumont in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France, and Melenchon voted in the southern French city of Marseille , Hidalgo, Zemur and others voted in Paris.

Separately, French Prime Minister Castel voted in the southern French town of Prades.

  According to the final poll before the first round of voting released on the 8th, Macron continued to rank first with 26% of the first round of voting; Marine Le Pen ranked second with 24%, and Melenchon with 17%. % of the approval rating came in third.

None of the other candidates had more than 10 percent approval.

Macron and Marine Le Pen are considered by French public opinion as the most likely to win the first round of voting and enter the second round.

  The turnout of the first round of voting in this presidential election was 25.48% as of noon that day, lower than the turnout at the same time in the 2017 presidential election (28.54%), but higher than the turnout at the same time in the 2002 presidential election (21.4%).

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