Exit polls show big win for Macron's party in legislative election

French President Emmanuel Macron's party "The Republic On The Move" (LREM) and its ally MoDem took the lead in the first round of French legislative election on Sunday.

Major results of all available exit polls showed that LERM won up to 33.5 per cent of votes, ahead of the conservatives which collected between 20.8 per cent and 22 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported.

Eying to form a strong opposition, the far-right National Front collected up to 14 per cent while the outgoing ruling Socialist Party reported a poor score of between nine and 10 per cent.

Following the first result of parliamentary competition's first leg, LREM and its allies were likely to win between 415 and 455 seats out of the 577-seat lower house of parliament, securing a landslide majority.

The Kantar Sofres-onepoint estimate, made for French newspaper Le Figaro, put the number at between 400 and 440 seats for LERM.

"With this result, there is a desire of the French to be coherent and want to give a majority to the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron," government spokesman Christophe Castaner told TF1 news channel.

By 5 p.m. local time, 40.75 per cent had cast their ballots, the lowest turnout in the fifth Republic, compared with the same time of day in the first round of 2012, when the figure stood at 48.3 per cent.

--IANS

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