In the first round of the parliamentary election in France, one in four eligible voters had cast their vote by midday, the Interior Ministry in Paris reported on Sunday.
Voter turnout was at 25.9% at 12 pm (1000 GMT). This was 7.47 percentage points higher than at the same time during the previous parliamentary election two years ago.
Around 49.3 million registered voters can cast their ballots. The last polling stations are expected to close at 8 pm. Projections of the outcome of the first round are expected shortly thereafter.
Several prominent politicians already cast their votes in the morning, including former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.
In Nice, the head of a polling station was punched by an election worker who wanted to prevent the opening of the polling station, according to Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi. The police arrested the attacker.
President Emmanuel Macron called the snap election after the far-right National Rally (RN) made large gains in elections to the European Parliament at the beginning of this month.
The RN is leading in pre-election polling ahead of the new leftist alliance, the New Popular Front (NPF), recently established to contest the elections. The Ensemble (Together) alliance, led by Macron’s Renaissance party, is trailing in third place.
Recent polls put Macron’s centrist camp in third place with between 20% and 20.5%. Le Pen’s RN and its allies were clearly ahead with 36% to 36.5%, followed by the NPF with 29%.
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