UPDATE - Voter Turnout In French Presidential Runoff Reaches 26.41% - Interior Ministry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th April, 2022) Voter turnout in the second round of the French presidential election reached 26.41% as of 10.00 GMT, the French Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

Polls opened at 6.00 GMT on Sunday in France, where the final second round of presidential elections is taking place. Emmanuel Macron, the current president, and Marine Le Pen, right-wing National Rally leader, are fighting for the right to lead the country for the next five years.

Both presidential candidates have already cast their vote in the runoff. The National Rally candidate made her choice at a polling station in the commune of Henin-Beaumont in the northern Pas-de-Calais region while the incumbent president, accompanied by his wife Brigitte, voted at a polling station in Le Touquet, where their family estate is located.

"Voted! To the thousands of French men and women who make it possible to vote: thank you.

In the polling stations of our towns and villages, you are the beating heart of our democracy," Macron wrote on Telegram.

According to the ministry, this year's turnout as of 10.00 GMT was lower than in the last two presidential elections at the same time.

"In 2017, the turnout rate at 12:00 (10.00 GMT) for the second round of the presidential election in metropolitan France was 28.23%. In 2012, this rate was 30.66% at the same time," the ministry said.

The French president is elected for a five-year term directly by the country's citizens age 18 and over, living in France and abroad. To become a candidate, one must be nominated by at least 500 elected officials. The election is held in two rounds. The first one took place on April 10. In the first round Macron received 27.84% of the vote against Le Pen's 23.15%.