The country has been in “electoral silence” since midnight on Friday, preventing candidates for the Elysée Palace from running, resulting in a ban on sending propaganda by post, telephone or the internet.
They will also not be able to hold public meetings in a reserved period ending at 8:00 p.m. local time tomorrow, when the first results of an election that President Emmanuel Macron has as a favorite will see far-right representative Marine Le Pen, present and the leader of La France Insumisa, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
During the period of silence, the dissemination of polls and interviews with candidates will be banned, and if the July 1977 law is broken, the media would face a fine of up to 75,000 euros.
According to the Constitutional Council, the electoral reserve tries to ensure the security of the right to vote and avoid any pressure on voters to give them time to think before exercising their right.
The main polling institutes, including the French Institute for Public Opinion (IFOP), Ipsos-Sopra Steria, Harris Interactive and Elabe, pledged not to conduct exit polls until polling closes tomorrow.
Voters ranked the loss of purchasing power and citizen security among their top concerns for the presidential election, which is set to go ahead with a high abstention forecast, around 28 percent, near the historic record of absenteeism from the election that dates back two decades with a 28.4 .
The two candidates with the most votes on Sunday will go to the polls on April 24, five years after Macron had clearly beaten Le Pen in that case.
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