Voting began today in the second round of the French presidential elections, in which the leaders of the first round are competing: outgoing President Emmanuel Macron and the leader of the French far-right, Marine Le Pen.
The two candidates for the presidential elections in France will remain silent today, Saturday, the day after the official campaign for a vote whose results appear decisive for the country's future.
The latest opinion polls revealed that Macron will win the second round, which constitutes a second version of the one that took place in 2017, with a smaller difference than the one recorded 5 years ago when he received 66% of the vote, but the abstention rate may have a significant impact.
Both camps fear that their voters will abstain, particularly in this period of spring school holidays across the country.
Macron concluded his campaign, which he started late due to the war in Ukraine, with a meeting in Vigiac in the rural Le Pen region (central), while Marine Le Pen - who toured around the country for a month - ended her campaign in her stronghold in Pas-de-Calais (North), which he represents in Parliament.
And 48.7 million voters were called to vote tomorrow, Sunday, as of 6:00 GMT.
Because of the time difference, the overseas territories of Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon and French Polynesia began voting on Saturday.
start voting
The polling stations opened in French prisons, where the inmates of the "Fore-Mérouges" prison south of Paris took the initiative to cast their votes.
Polling operations also began in the archipelago of "Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon", which are the French islands off the Canadian coast, and will be followed by the inhabitants of "Guyana" and the Antilles, in addition to the French islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, such as New Caledonia and French Polynesia. .
In the French elections, attention is directed to the possible rates of turnout or abstention from voting, which would be a decisive factor for both candidates, as the first round of these elections showed a voter turnout rate of about 26%, which is the largest since the 2002 elections, which means that voters Out of every 4 abstained.
It is noteworthy that the suburban areas, which include a dense population of French people of foreign origin, were the least likely to vote in the first round.
Referring to the last elections in 2017, the percentage of abstention from voting in the second round, which took place between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, was about 25%.
Whoever wins, this vote will have historical significance, as Macron could become the first president to be re-elected since Jacques Chirac in 2002, and the first president to be re-elected outside a period of coexistence with a government by another politician since the selection of the head of state by direct universal suffrage began in 1962. As for Le Pen, She could become the first woman and the first leader of the far-right to hold the presidency.