France Votes: An Hour-by-Hour Guide to the Presidential Election
- Voters will choose among 11 candidates to enter the runoff
- Four candidates bunched near first, could make second round
Who Are the French Election's Main Candidates?
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France goes to the polls on Sunday for the first round of the presidential election, with four candidates capable of reaching the May 7 runoff. In what is arguably the most surprising and controversial election campaign in the 59-year-old Fifth Republic, voters’ choices include a centrist who has never run for office, a far-right candidate who wants to leave the euro, a center-right candidate battling a corruption scandal and a Communist-backed leftist who uses holograms of himself in his campaign rallies.
Here’s a brief rundown of what happens when, in Paris’s time zone: