By 5 p.m. Paris time (11 a.m. ET), 65.3% of registered voters had cast their ballots. That turnout is down more than 6.5% compared with the same time in the last election in 2012.
A high abstention rate is likely to hit Macron harder than Le Pen, analysts have said.
In the election's first round two weeks ago, voters rejected representatives of all the traditional mainstream political parties in France, with Macron and Le Pen topping a field of 11 candidates by taking 24% and 21% of the vote, respectively.
The two-round election, which has played out like something of a soap opera, was hit with another scandal at the eleventh hour, when Macron's campaign announced it had been thetarget of a "massive and coordinated" hacking operation.
Around 14.5 gigabytes of emails, personal and business documents were posted to the text-sharing site Pastebin just hours before the campaign period came to a close Friday night.
Macron's party said the hackers had mixed fake documents with authentic ones "to create confusion and misinformation." It is not clear who was behind the attack.
Le Pen has spent the past few weeks battling to extend her appeal beyond her traditional base of supporters, while Macron has been attempting to convince voters that he is not part of the political elite they rejected in the first round.
Macron, 39, has campaigned on a pro-Europe, pro-integration platform. Le Pen, 48, has suggested she would aim to take France out of the European Union, withdraw it from NATO and forge closer ties with Russia.
A high abstention rate is likely to hit Macron harder than Le Pen, analysts have said.
In the election's first round two weeks ago, voters rejected representatives of all the traditional mainstream political parties in France, with Macron and Le Pen topping a field of 11 candidates by taking 24% and 21% of the vote, respectively.
The two-round election, which has played out like something of a soap opera, was hit with another scandal at the eleventh hour, when Macron's campaign announced it had been thetarget of a "massive and coordinated" hacking operation.
Around 14.5 gigabytes of emails, personal and business documents were posted to the text-sharing site Pastebin just hours before the campaign period came to a close Friday night.
Macron's party said the hackers had mixed fake documents with authentic ones "to create confusion and misinformation." It is not clear who was behind the attack.
Le Pen has spent the past few weeks battling to extend her appeal beyond her traditional base of supporters, while Macron has been attempting to convince voters that he is not part of the political elite they rejected in the first round.
Macron, 39, has campaigned on a pro-Europe, pro-integration platform. Le Pen, 48, has suggested she would aim to take France out of the European Union, withdraw it from NATO and forge closer ties with Russia.
Comments
Post a Comment