2017.04.2101:57:00UTC+00French Election: Key Facts for Sunday

This Sunday is a historical one as the outcome of the most important election of this year could decide the fate of the entire European Union on that day. French will be voting in their most divisive election in decades. Here is all that you need to know heading into Sunday,

• The first round of the election will be held on April 23rd, Sunday. If no candidate secures 50 percent of the votes, the top two candidates will face each other on May 7th in the final round of the election.
• The polling booths on Sunday will open at 6 am local time (GMT+1) and will close at 7 pm.
• The exit polls are likely to be out two hours after the closing of the booths.
• It’s a four-way race and the top candidates are Emmanuel Macron the Pro-EU leader of the independent movement ‘En Marche’ (on the move or forward), anti-EU Front National leader Marine Le Pen, the pro-EU Republican candidate François Fillon and the anti-EU leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
• The majority of the latest polls show the differences between these four candidates are just 4-5 points.
• Polls also indicate that lots of people in France, as much as 30 percent are either undecided or planning to abstain and they are likely to make a big difference in the outcome.