French local election exit poll puts Socialist Paris mayor in lead

Hidalgo with 30% was ahead of Dati on 22% and Agnes Buzyn from President Emmanuel Macron's La Republique en Marche party in third with 17.7%, according to the exit poll

Incumbent Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo beat President Emmanuel Macron's candidate into a distant third place in the first round of local elections in the French capital on Sunday, an IPSOS exit poll showed.

With 30%, Hidalgo, a Socialist, was comfortably ahead of conservative rival Rachida Dati's 22% and the 17.7% garnered by Macron's official candidate, former health minister Agnes Buzyn.

A dissident from Macron's party, Cedric Villani, won 8%.

In Paris, mayoral elections follow a complicated two-round system in seventeen districts, which each elect a certain number of delegates, similar to the US presidential election.

Lists of candidates above 5 percent can merge ahead