France began voting on Sunday, 10 April, in the first round of an election that has come to life in the past two weeks after a lacklustre campaign eclipsed by the war in Ukraine after Russia's invasion.
11 rivals are vying to dethrone President Emmanuel Macron, who is aiming to become the first French president to win re-election after Jacques Chirac in 2002. They range from a Communist on the left to anti-immigration contenders on the far right.
President Macron is projected to come in first, but polls indicate that in the second round, he will face far-right leader Marine Le Pen, in a rerun of their 2017 runoff.
The first exit polls are expected to come in when the last polling stations in Paris and other cities close at 8 pm (GMT+2), reported France24.
Major Candidates
President Macron is running for re-election. He has been accused of abusing his position as a wartime leader and Europe's top diplomat to avoid debates with his opponents, reported The New York Times.
Macron's major contender is Marine Le Pen, a far-right leader with an anti-European Union, anti-NATO and pro-Russia ideology. Criticised by her opponents of being an extremist intent on separating society, Le Pen has attempted to portray a more moderate image and concern for voters' everyday concerns, such as rising prices, with some success during the campaign, The New York Times reported.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the left-wing contender with the strongest chance of making the runoff; Valérie Pécresse, the conservative candidate; and Éric Zemmour, a far-right writer, commentator, and television star, are among the other candidates.
French Election System Explained
France follows a two-round election system and voting in the country is a paper-based process. All the candidates will compete in the first round as the people vote for their favourite.
If no candidate acquires an absolute majority (more than 50 percent of the total vote), then there is a second round, a run off, between the top two candidates of the first round.
General Charles de Gaulle, one of the founding fathers of France's Fifth Republic and its constitution of 1958, was well-known for his distrust of political parties. According to France24, with a two-round voting system meant to pick France's leader by direct universal suffrage, he hoped to limit their power.
The two-round system, according to popular belief, permits voters to vote first with their hearts and subsequently with their heads.
The presidential run-off, on the other hand, is frequently cynically referred to as picking "the lesser of two evils."
Present-day France
France is the world's seventh-largest economy, the world's most visited country, one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and nuclear power, with over 67 million inhabitants.
It is a pioneering member of the European Union and a major policy mover.
Polls suggest that the majority of French people are concerned about rising living costs and widespread dissatisfaction with politics has emerged as a key source of concern, and this election could see the lowest voter turnout in decades.
(With inputs from France24 and The New York Times.)
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