Polls open for 1st round of French presidential elections - LIVE UPDATES

  23 April 2017    Read: 1781
Polls open for 1st round of French presidential elections - LIVE UPDATES
A journalist in Paris reported that a Fillon newsletter was in the envelope given to him at the polling station. He said that he informed staff at the station who advised him to remove it. They claimed no similar incidents had been reported.

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National Front politician Marion Le Pen tweeted that she voted in Carpentras in southern France. The niece of Marine Le Pen added that she rode her motorbike to get strawberries while waiting for the results.

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At a polling station in South Kensington, London, a three hour queue was reported. In Dublin long queues were also reported at the French Embassy.

Jean-Luc Melenchon of La France Insoumise votes in Paris. Melenchon, along with Fillon, Le Pen and Macron are seen as the four front-runners in the election.

All 11 candidates have now cast their ballots.

Turnout for the election has seen a slight increase compared to the last election, standing at 28.54 percent at 10:00 GMT compared to 28.29 percent in 2012, according to data from the French Interior Ministry.

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In 2007, the turnout at this time was 31.21 percent.



A polling station in Besançon in eastern France was evacuated after a stolen vehicle was abandoned with the engine running in its vicinity, reported Reuters.

Bomb disposal experts examined the vehicle, according to a ministry official. The polling station has since been reopened.

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Jean Lassalle of Resistons! and Jacques Cheminade of Solidarity and Progress cast their votes in Pyrennées-Atlantique and Paris respectively.

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Marine Le Pen cast her ballot at a polling station in Henin-Beaumont. A reporter at the scene said the candidate arrived and departed from the station within five minutes. Video shows her travelling in a vehicle with blacked out-windows and surrounded by bodyguards on foot.



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The feminist activist group FEMEN staged a protest in Marine Le Pen’s constituency, Henin-Beaumont. Topless demonstrators from the group wore Donald Trump masks, as well as those depicting Nigel Farage and Le Pen’s father, National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.



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Candidates Philippe Poutou of the New Anticapitalist Party voted in Bordeaux and Francois Asselineau of the Popular Republican Union in Paris.

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Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! Voted at a polling station in Touquet in Pas-de-Calais. The frontrunner was accompanied by his wife Brigette.

On Thursday Macron released details of a phone call from former US president Barack Obama in which he wished Macron “all the best.”



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Video from outside the polling station in Henin-Beaumont, in the Pas-de-Calais, where National Front candidate Marine Le Pen is expected to cast her vote. The video shows heightened security ahead of her arrival. Voters, who have been at the station since early morning, were met by armed security personnel.



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President Hollande voted at a polling station in Tulle in central France.



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10:45

A total of 70,000 polling stations are opening their doors to voters. Tough security measures have been put in place amid a high terror alert, with more than 50,000 police and gendarmes, as well as an additional 7,000 soldiers on watch.

On Saturday, polls opened for French citizens in the country’s overseas territories, as well as at consulates and embassies in foreign countries.

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