(VOVworld) - French
voters began casting ballots for the presidential election Sunday in a tense
first-round poll that's seen as a test for the spread of populism around the
world. Over 60,000 polling stations opened for voters who will choose between
11 candidates in the most unpredictable election in generations.
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Five candidates of the first round poll of the presidential election (Photo: AP) |
Opinion polls
point to a tight race among the four top contenders vying to get into the May 7
presidential runoff that will decide who becomes France's next head of state. Polls suggest far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel
Macron, an independent centrist and former economy minister, were in the lead.
But conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, appeared to be
closing the gap, as was far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon. Security
was tight; the government
mobilized more than 50,000 police and gendarmes to protect 70,000 polling
stations, with an additional 7,000 soldiers on patrol. Security was a
prominent issue after a wave of extremist attacks on French soil, including a
gunman who killed a Paris police officer Thursday night before being shot dead
by security forces.