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French presidential election: First round final results and campaign latest

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French presidential election: First round final results and campaign latest
Screens in Toulouse displaying TV shows showing the projected results after the close of polling stations in the first round of the French presidential election. (Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)

The final official result is now in, showing a close race among the top three candidates with Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen going forward to the second round of the French presidential elections.

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The preliminary results, released at 8pm on Sunday, accurately placed Macron at the head of the polls, followed by Le Pen.

But on Monday afternoon with all votes counted, the official total from the Interior Ministry confirmed their scores - Macron on 27.84 percent and Le Pen on 23.15 percent.

In a close third - closer than many polls had predicted but not close enough to keep Le Pen out of the second round - was the hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on 21.95.

Lying in fourth was extreme right hopeful Eric Zemmour on 7.07 percent.

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The above candidates, scoring more than five percent of the vote, will be able to claim back half their campaign expenses from the State.

However the remaining candidates - including the traditional parties of the centre-left and centre-right, plus the Greens - all scored less than five percent and now face a hefty bill. 

Valérie Pécresse of the centre-right Les Républicains on Monday launched a fundraising bid, saying she is personally liable for €5 million of campaign expenses. 

The full scores were;

  • Macron 27.84 percent
  • Le Pen 23.15
  • Mélenchon 21.95
  • Zemmour 7.07
  • Pécresse 4.78
  • Jadot 4.63
  • Lassalle 3.13
  • Roussel 2.28
  • Dupont-Aignan 2.06
  • Hidalgo 1.75
  • Poutou 0.77
  • Arthaud 0.56

The final, official total from the Interior Ministry was unusually late - not released until 1pm on Monday despite 97 percent of votes having been counted by 3am.

An Interior Ministry spokesman told Le Parisien that the missing votes were largely made up of French citizens who had voted abroad.

The definitive total cannot be released until all votes have been counted and totalled.

READ ALSO Macron v Le Pen - what next?

Macron and Le Pen now have two weeks of campaigning before the French go back to the polls on April 24th and pick one of them to be the next president - early opinion polls show a very close contest in the second round.

Macron was due to travel to Denain in northern France on Monday - one of the poorest towns in the country and deep in Le Pen's traditional heartlands in the north east.

After running a muted campaign so far, Macron has a busier schedule of campaign events planned this week, including trips to Strasbourg and Le Havre this week and a campaign rally in Marseille planned.

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