France on Saturday prepared for its most consequential legislative election of recent times, with residents of overseas territories opening voting for a poll expected to give the far right its biggest ever presence in parliament.
A traditional final day pause was observed on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s second round runoff after a frenetic campaign that saw tensions rise across the country and dozens of attacks on candidates.
Underlining France’s global footprint that spans the oceans of the world, the first French region to vote was Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a small French archipelago off the coast of Canada where citizens began voting from 1000 GMT.
They were followed by residents of French Caribbean territories including Martinique and Guadeloupe as well as Guiana in South America.
French Pacific territories come next before people in mainland France cast their ballots from 0600 GMT on Sunday.
Polls will close by 1800 GMT on Sunday when projections of seat numbers -- regarded in France as a firm indicator of the final outcome -- are published.
Final opinion polls on Friday suggested that far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) would fall short of winning an outright 289 seat majority in the 577-member National Assembly while being the largest party ahead of the New Popular Front (NFP) left-wing coalition.
Yet President Emmanuel Macron’s gamble in calling snap elections could end with his centrist alliance having approximately half the number of deputies it had before the elections and the RN double.
The final opinion polls published by two organisations Friday projected the RN would win between 170-210 seats, followed by the New Popular Front left-wing coalition on 145-185 seats and Macron’s centrists on 118-150 seats.
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