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France opens a new election day this April 24. This is the second round of the presidential elections in which the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the candidate of the far-right National Grouping party, Marine Le Pen, face each other. Abstention could characterize the elections.
Abstention and indecision. Two words that could mark the decisive elections in France.
This Sunday, April 24, the country opens the way to the second round of the presidential elections that face two old rivals: the current president Emmanuel Macron and the candidate of the far-right National Group, Marine Le Pen.
Although the faces are the same, the panorama is distant from that of the 2017 elections, when the current president comfortably defeated Le Pen.
This time, Macron is up for re-election that would see him remain in the Elysee Palace for another five years after a first term marked by social upheaval, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
While Le Pen reaches the final stretch of his third presidential election.
Many French still do not feel represented, so abstention could set the course for the elections.
Against this background, the French go to the polls this Sunday, April 24. In the midst of the electoral silence that governs the French media, such as France 24, during which it is not possible to publish about the candidates, their programs or their propaganda, or polls, we tell you what are the main keys to take into account in this crucial second round that will define who will direct the destinies of the Gallic country until 2027.
Who can go to the polls?
Almost 49 million people will be able to go to the polling stations, including the 1.4 million French people residing outside the country registered on 210 consular lists.
Citizens over 18 years of age who have reached that age at least the day before the first round of the presidential elections are authorized.
What time can you vote?
Polling stations will open at 8 am and close at 7 pm (local time) on Sunday, April 24.
Only in big cities like Paris, Lyon, Marseille will they be open one more hour, until 8 pm.
Electoral silence: what is it about?
Midnight on Friday marked the end of the campaigns for the two candidates. Since then, public meetings, handing out leaflets or campaign material, including on social networks, have been prohibited.
The French media will not be able to publish interviews, polls or any type of estimation of the results or talk about the candidates and their programs, or show electoral propaganda.
When is the result known?
It will be 8 pm (local time) when the face of the winner of the presidential elections appears on television.
Even though polling stations in big cities will have just closed by then, France uses an estimation system based on the actual ballots that have been counted at that time.
Some predictions that can be carried out thanks to the time difference between the announcement of the winner and the closing of the polls at 7pm in much of the country.
Thus, multiple polling institutes send their pollsters to different representative electoral colleges of the Gallic territory.
These researchers are responsible for communicating the results of every one hundred ballots counted and software is responsible for centralizing the data, comparing it with past elections and making projections.
The method used in France is far from that of other countries, where estimates are made from the testimonies of people consulted outside the polling stations, known as exit polls.
The official results are released overnight, but the French system has proven effective in previous elections.
Abstention: the great protagonist?
Everything seems to indicate that abstention will give something to talk about in the elections this Sunday. That of last April 10, in the first round of the presidential elections, was the largest since 2002.
This was close to 26.31%. Which means that 12.8 million French people did not go to the polls.
A scenario that could be repeated in the second round as many French people do not feel represented by either of the two candidates.
For many, the great unknown is where the electorate of the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who won 21.95% of the vote, will lean.
With EFE and Reuters
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