Initial abstentions in French presidential election lower than predicted
The first round of presidential elections has begun in France
The last to vote was President Emmanuel Macron, favorite in all the polls to vote on April 24, together with the extreme right representative Marine Le Pen, who lived in Hénin-Beaumont, a town in the northern department , voted from the Pas-de-Calais.
Macron deposited his ballot in Touquet, a commune also located in the Pas-de-Calais, while the leader of La Francia Insumisa and third in the polls, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, did so in the southern city of Marseille.
In this capital, ultra-right Eric Zemmour and environmentalist Yannick Jadot voted; the conservative Valérie Pécresse cast her vote in Yvelines in the Paris region, and the national secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux in the Nord department.
The worst-placed candidates for the Elysée Palace also went to the polls before midday: the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, MPs Jean Lassalle and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the representative of the New Anti-Capitalist Party, Philippe Poutou, and Workers’ Struggle spokeswoman Nathalie Arthaud.
According to the authorities, the elections are going smoothly as expected, with some complaints from people about difficulties and delays in verifying their registration on the lists online.
Some voters expressed concern about the high abstention rate forecast for this election, which could surpass the record 2002 presidential election (28.4 percent).
The polls reflected absenteeism by up to three in 10 voters, a scenario attributed by some polled citizens to disenchantment with the political class over decades of social problems currently mostly related to the loss of purchasing power.
In France, this Sunday, like yesterday, the “voting silence” will apply until 8 p.m. local time, when the first results will be known.
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