Macron's party set to win in French parliamentary elections

French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist La Republique En Marche is projected to win a landslide victory following the first round of parliamentary elections, the media reported.

On Sunday, 48.7 per cent of some 47.5 million eligible voters cast their ballots in 67,000 voting centres opened across the country to elect 577 lawmakers to the lower house of Parliament or the National Assembly.

With all the ballots counted by early Monday morning, La Republique en Marche (Republic on the Move) and its Mouvement Democrate (MoDem) allies won a combined 32.3 per cent of the vote, while the established Les Republicains trailed with 15.8 per cent of the vote, reports CNN.

Former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's right-wing Front National party garnered 13.2 per cent of the vote, but looked to win only a smattering of seats.

The Socialists, the party of former President Francois Hollande, won just 7.4 per cent.

The 39-year-old President's party, founded just a year ago, is expected to win between 415 and 445 seats in the lower house when next Sunday's second round of voting concludes.

Macron's party contested 526 constituencies out of a possible 577 and it put forward 266 women candidates, while 219 come from outside politics.

He has drawn candidates from a cross-section of society, including a former bullfighter, a Nobel Prize winner and a former fighter pilot.

"We are grateful for the trust you have placed in all the new faces of the Republic," Catherine Barbaroux, the party's president, told the media.

The final results will be confirmed next Sunday after the second round of voting, CNN reported.

To win a seat in the first round of voting, candidates have to win more than half of the votes, which must account for at least a quarter of the registered voters.

If no candidate manages to achieve that target, then all who won at least 12.5 per cent of registered voters go to the second round, where the winner will advance to Parliament.

--IANS

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