Paris, April 11 : French President Emmanuel Macron won the first round of the French election held on Sunday, the BBC reported on Monday. He will be facing off with far-right rival Marine Le Pen for the presidency for a second time. While Macron has had a convincing win in the first-round, opinion polls suggest that the run-off could be much closer. Le Pen has called upon every non-Macron voter to join her and “put France back in order”. With 96 per cent of results counted, Emmanuel Macron got 27.42 per cent of the vote, Marine Le Pen 24.03 per cent and Jean-Luc Mélenchon 21.57 per cent. Veteran far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon polled even better than what he did five years ago and has emerged as the unlikely kingmaker. “You must not give a single vote to Marine Le Pen,” he told his supporters, but he pointedly did not back the president either. Twelve candidates were in the fray, but these were the only three who polled more than 10 per cent of the votes.
UNI
