Le Pen, Macron ahead in French presidential vote, partial official figures show
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron are leading in the official vote count in France's presidential election with about 38-39 percent of votes counted so far, official figures from the Interior Ministry showed on Sunday.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron are leading in the official vote count in France's presidential election with about 38-39 percent of votes counted so far, official figures from the Interior Ministry showed on Sunday.
The figures do not include results from France's major cities, where Le Pen's level of support tends to be low relative to smaller towns and villages where counts were complete.
With 20 million votes counted from France's 47 million strong electorate and pollster projections pointing to a turnout approaching 80 percent, the figures put Le Pen on 24.38 percent, Macron on 22.19 percent, conservative Francois Fillon on 19.63 percent and Jean-Luc Melenchon on 18.09 percent.
Early projections from opinion pollsters on the results had shown Macron ahead of Le Pen.
The two highest-scoring candidates from the first round go through to contest a run-off second round on May 7.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)