Macron, Le Pen qualify for second round elections: projections
French centrist Emmanuel Macron and far right leader Marine Le Pen have both qualified for the runoff vote.
Macron has come out on top in the first round of France's presidential election with far right leader Le Pen in second place.
It means they have both qualified for the May 7 runoff, pollsters projections from partial results showed on Sunday.
Marine Le Pen came in second place in the first round of France's presidential election, projections say. Photo: AP
Macron won 23.7 percent of the vote and Le Pen 21.7 percent, an Ipsos/Sopra Steria estimate showed.
He got 23 per cent of the vote and Le Pen got 22 per cent in an estimate from Harris Interactive.
An Ifop estimate put Macron at 23.8 and Le Pen at 21.6 per cent.
Emmanuel Macron came first in the first round of France's presidential elections, early projections say. Photo: AP
Conservative French presidential candidate Francois Fillon, who failed on Sunday to qualify for the runoff, urged voters to back centrist Macron, saying far-right leader Le Pen would bankrupt France if elected.
"There is no other choice but to vote against the far right, I will vote for Emmanuel Macron," Fillon told supporters after early projections indicated that Macron and Le Pen had made it into the May 7 runoff after a first round of voting on Sunday.
An early favorite in the campaign, Fillon struggled to recover ground lost after allegations emerged in the press that he had used public funds to pay family members for work they had not done.
Newsbreak – April 24
