LIVE – Presidential Election: The vast majority of polling stations have closed

It’s 7 p.m. Most polling stations close. Voters who are registered in the country’s major cities such as Paris, Lyon, Marseille or Strasbourg can cast their ballots in the ballot box until 8 p.m.

Candidate Valérie Pécresse had just arrived at the Maison de la Chimie in the capital’s seventh arrondissement, where she will follow the results of the first round of the presidential elections.

The President of the Republic returned to the Élysée Palace in Paris after going to the polls in Le Touquet (Pas-de-Calais) this Sunday.

Extraordinary device for an extraordinary evening. Follow our special evening on the results of the first round of the presidential election from 6 p.m.

Find Apolline de Malherbe and Maxime Switek on BFMTV from 6pm to witness the closing of the polling stations, the announcement of the election results and the first political reactions.

Then find Jean-Baptiste Boursier from 10pm for the rest of this election night.

The final abstention rate for this first round of the presidential election is estimated at 26.5%, according to a projection by our partner Elabe for BFMTV, L’Express/RMC with SFR.

For comparison, here are first-round abstentions in previous presidential elections:

• 19.98% in 2017
• 18.63% in 2012
• 14.67% in 2007
• 27.16% in 2002

The French avoided the ballot box. According to an Elabe projection, the final abstention rate for the first round of the presidential election at 8 p.m. is estimated at 26.5 percent The Express produces for BFMTV with our partner SFR. That is more than in the first ballot in 2017, when the final abstention rate was 22.23%. A level not seen since 2002 when it hit 28.40%.

>> Find our article HERE.

Turnout at 5pm was highest in the departments of Dordogne (75.26%), Aveyron (74.93%) and Gers (73.71%). In contrast, the departments of Haute-Corse (51.23%), Seine-Saint-Denis (51.71%) and Paris (52.17%) are the departments where voters turned out the least.

Turnout for this first round of the presidential election was 52.17% as of 5pm in Paris, down 12 points from 2017 (64.51%).

According to the Interior Ministry, the turnout in the first round of the presidential election at 5 p.m. was 65 percent. A value that has fallen by almost 5 points compared to 2017 at the same time and has not been heard since the presidential election of 2002, in which the turnout was 58.45%. In the first round of the last presidential election, turnout at 5 p.m. was 69.42%, up from 70.59% in 2012.

Who is in the second round of the presidential election? However, if we want to have a first estimate of the final abstentions, we still have to wait before knowing the first tendencies of the electoral process – it is forbidden to spread warnings before the last polling stations close at 8 p.m.

Only then and not before can BFMTV publish the first estimates from the Elabe Institute: This is how these numbers are calculated.

Turnout in the first round of the presidential election on Sunday was 25.48%, three points down from 2017 (28.54%) and 2012 (28.3%), according to the Interior Ministry as of noon. However, midday turnout was four points higher than April 21, 2002 (21.39%), a record year for abstention in a first round of presidential elections.

>> Find our article HERE.

Voting for the first round of presidential elections continues across metropolitan France. You still have until 7 p.m. to vote if you have not yet cast your vote in the ballot box, in some municipalities even until 8 p.m.

We will know the participation numbers in a few minutes at 5 p.m. before the Elabe Institute makes a first estimate of the final abstentions.