Voters are making a second-round vote in the snap parliamentary election in France.
The second-round voting began across mainland France at 8am local time on Sunday, July 7, 2024.
Nonetheless, it began on Saturday in France’s overseas territories from the South Pacific to the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and North Atlantic.
The elections wrap up Sunday at 8 p.m. in mainland France.
Initial polling projections are expected Sunday night, with early official results expected late Sunday and early Monday, July 8, 2024.
French President, Emmanuel Macron called the surprise vote after the anti-immigration, nationalist National Rally made huge gains in the June 9 European elections, taking a huge gamble that French voters would block the far-right party as they always have in the past.
The National Rally won a larger share than ever in the first round on June 30, 2024, and its leader Marine Le Pen called on voters to give the party an absolute majority in Round two.
The elections could leave France with its first far-right government since the Nazi occupation in the second world war if the National Rally wins an absolute majority and its 28-year-old leader Jordan Bardella becomes Prime Minister.
Macron cast his ballot in the seaside resort town of La Touquet, along with his wife.
French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal cast his ballot in the Paris suburb of Vanves on Sunday morning.
Le Pen is not voting, because her district in northern France is not holding a second round after she won the seat outright last week.
Across France, 76 other candidates secured seats in the first round, including 39 from her National Rally and 32 from the leftist New Popular Front alliance.
Two candidates from Macron’s centrists list also won their seats in the first round.
Opposition parties made hurried deals to try to block a landslide victory for Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in the second round of legislative elections, as she said her party would lead the government only if it won an absolute majority — or close to it.
An unprecedented number of candidates who qualified for round two from the left-wing alliance of the New Popular Front and from President Emmanuel Macron’s weakened centrists have stepped aside to favor the candidate most likely to win against a National Rally opponent.
According to a count by a French newspaper, some 218 candidates who were eligible to compete in the second round have pulled out. Of those, 130 were on the left, and 82 came from the Macron-led centrist alliance Ensemble.
Highest Voter Turnout Since 1981
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the voter turnout in the second round of the French parliamentary election was at 59.71% as of 5pm local time, a drastic increase from a corresponding figure of 38.11% in the last election in 2022.
It is the highest turnout since 1981 at this time in the voting day.
Very unusually, the turnout was also slightly up on the first round vote last Sunday, June 30, 2024, which was at 59.39%.
The overall turnout is on track to be the highest in four decades.
This comes as Prime Minister of France, Gabriel Attal beseeched French voters to stand against Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN).
“Today the danger is a majority dominated by the extreme right and that would be catastrophic,” Attal, who may be tasked with trying to hold together a caretaker government, said in a final interview.
READ ALSO: Haruna Iddrisu Calls on Politicians to Address Basic Needs of Ghanaians
