Paris: The latest on France's presidential runoff on Sunday as centrist Emmanuel Macron defeats far-right candidate Marine Le Pen ...
12.02am
UAE leaders send their congratulations
Abu Dhabi: President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, sent cables of congratulation to Emmanuel Macron for winning France's presidential election.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces , also sent a congratulatory cable to the president-elect.
11.47pm
Trump tweets congratulations
US President Donald Trump has tweeted his congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on what Trump is calling Macron's "big win" in France's presidential election.
Trump also says he looks forward to working with France's new leader. He didn't immediately extend an invitation for Macron to visit the White House.
Trump tweeted: "Congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his big win today as the next President of France. I look very much forward to working with him."
Congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his big win today as the next President of France. I look very much forward to working with him!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2017
A White House statement cited Macron and the French people for "their successful presidential election" and said the United States looks forward to "continuing our close relationship with the French government."
10.53pm
Macron win a hit in Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman welcomed Emmanuel Macron's resounding win in France's presidential election on Sunday as a "victory for a strong and united Europe".
"Congratulations, @EmmanuelMacron. Your victory is a victory for a strong and united Europe and for French-German friendship," wrote Steffen Seibert in French and German on Twitter.
Separately, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel hailed Macron's win for keeping France "at the heart of Europe".
"Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite! France chose that today. The great nation was, is, and remains in the middle and at the heart of Europe," wrote Gabriel on Twitter, using France's national slogan which means "liberty, equality, fraternity".
Merkel and her government had thrown their support behind Macron against far-right and anti-EU challenger Marine Le Pen.
But ahead of Germany's own elections in September, Gabriel, a social democrat, also used the occasion to take aim at Merkel's conservatives who have pushed a hard line on reducing national budget deficits.
Critics of the tough push for economic reforms have argued that such policies may have pushed some to the political extreme.
"What has to stop is pointing fingers at the French for doing nothing and not giving them a milimetre of flexibility in their policies,"he said.
"Maybe the conservatives in Germany now realise that 0.5 per cent more deficit in France is really not as costly as if Madame Le Pen were president," he added.
10.45pm
May congratulates Macron
British Prime Minister Theresa May "warmly" congratulated Macron after estimates showed he had won France's presidential race, Downing Street said.
"The Prime Minister warmly congratulates President-elect Macron on his election success.
"France is one of our closest allies and we look forward to working with the new President on a wide range of shared priorities," a Downing Street spokesman said in a statement.
Macron in February took his election campaign to London — home to the majority of an estimated 300,000-plus French citizens in Britain — where he urged them to bring their talents home to France.
10.35pm
'Hope'
French President-elect Emmanuel Macron told AFP that his victory in Sunday's election represented "hope" and a "new chapter" for France.
"A new chapter in our long history begins tonight. I want it to be one of hope and renewed confidence," Macron said.
10.30pm
Le Pen wishes Macron 'success'
Defeated French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen claimed a "historic, massive result" for her far-right National Front (FN) in Sunday's presidential run-off won by centrist Emmanuel Macron.
In a short statement, Le Pen said she had called Macron to wish him "success" in tackling the "huge challenges" he faced and announced that she would lead the FN into June's legislative elections.
10.03pm
Macron wins
Pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron won France's landmark presidential election, first estimates showed Sunday, heading off a fierce challenge from the far-right in a pivotal vote for the future of the divided country and Europe.
The victory caps an extraordinary rise for the 39-year-old former investment banker, who will become the country's youngest-ever leader.
He has promised to heal a fractured and demoralised country after a vicious campaign that has exposed deep economic and social divisions, as well as tensions around identity and immigration.
Initial estimates showed Macron winning between 65.5 per cent and 66.1 pe rcent of ballots ahead of Le Pen on between 33.9 per cent and 34.5 per cent.
Unknown three years ago, Macron is now poised to become one of Europe's most powerful leaders, bringing with him a hugely ambitious agenda of political and economic reform for France and the European Union.
The result will resonate worldwide and particularly in Brussels and Berlin where leaders will breathe a sigh of relief that Le Pen's anti-EU, anti-globalisation programme has been defeated.
After Britain's vote last year to leave the EU and Donald Trump's victory in the US, the French election had been widely watched as a test of how high a tide of right-wing nationalism would rise.
Le Pen, 48, had portrayed the ballot as a contest between Macron and the "globalists" — in favour of open trade, immigration and shared sovereignty — and her "patriotic" vision of strong borders and national identities.
Outgoing President Francois Hollande, who plucked Macron from obscurity to name him minister in 2014, said voting "is always an important, significant act, heavy with consequences" as he cast his vote.
7.50pm
Turnout down
Voter turnout stood at 65.30% at 7pm UAE time, six points down on 2012, according to an official.
3.47pm
Security alert prompts evacuation
The courtyard outside the Louvre museum in Paris, where presidential candidate Macron planned to celebrate, has been evacuated after a security alert, according to officials.
2.10pm
Voters cast ballot in UAE
In the UAE, registered French voters cast their ballot to choose France's next leader.
French voters cast vote in the UAE
Le Pen votes in party stronghold
Le Pen has cast her ballot in Henin-Beaumont, a small northern town controlled by her National Front party.
Le Pen arrived at the polling station with Henin-Beaumont Mayor Steeve Briois, who took over as the National Front's leader during the presidential election campaign.
She was able to vote without any incident after feminist activists were briefly detained a couple of hours earlier Sunday for hanging a big anti-Le Pen banner from a church.
Front-runner Macron votes
Earlier on Sunday, Macron voted in the coastal town of Le Tourquet in northern France alongside his wife, Brigitte Macron.
The former Socialist economy minister and one-time banker was all smiles and petted a black dog as he stepped out of his vacation home in the seaside resort.
For security reasons, Macron was driven to his nearby polling station at Le Touquet City Hall and shook hands with a large crowd of supporters before he and his wife entered the building.
Hollande votes in Tulle
Outgoing French president Francois Hollande has cast his vote in the runoff election to replace him.
Hollande voted Sunday morning in his political fiefdom of Tulle in southwestern France. Hollande, the most unpopular French leader in the country's modern history, decided not to stand for re-election last year.
The Socialist president has called on voters to reject far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and to back centrist Emmanuel Macron, his former protigi.
The Socialist candidate, Benoit Hamon, was eliminated in the election's first round after receiving some 6 percent of the vote.
Macron, Le Pen face off
The run-off election pits the pro-Europe, pro-business Macron against anti-immigration and anti-EU Le Pen, two radically different visions that underline a split in Western democracies.
Polling day follows an unprecedented campaign marked by scandal, repeated surprises and a last-minute hacking attack on Macron, a 39-year-old who has never held elected office.
The run-off vote pits the pro-Europe, pro-business Macron against anti-immigration and anti-EU Le Pen, two radically different visions that underline a split in western democracies.
Le Pen, 48, has portrayed the ballot as a contest between the “globalists” represented by her rival - those in favour of open trade, immigration and shared sovereignty - versus the “nationalists” who defend strong borders and national identities.
Voting takes place in 66,546 polling stations. Most will close at 1700 GMT, except those in big cities which will stay open an hour longer.
A first estimate of the results will be published around 1800 GMT.
“The political choice the French people are going to make is clear,” Le Pen said in her opening remarks during an often vicious debate between the pair on Wednesday night.
The last polling showed Macron - winner of last month’s election first round - with a widening lead of around 62 per cent to 38 per cent before the hacking revelations on Friday evening. A campaigning blackout entered into force shortly after.
Hundreds of thousands of emails and documents stolen from the Macron campaign were dumped online and then spread by anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, leading the candidate to call it an attempt at “democratic destabilisation.”
France’s election authority said publishing the documents could be a criminal offence, a warning heeded by traditional media organisations but flouted by Macron’s opponents and far-right activists online.
“We knew that there were these risks during the presidential campaign because it happened elsewhere. Nothing will go without a response,” French President Francois Hollande told AFP on Saturday.
Winds of change
US intelligence agencies believe state-backed Russian operatives were behind a massive hacking attack on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign ahead of America’s presidential election last November.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the French hack, but the government and Macron’s team previously accused the Kremlin of trying to meddle in the election - accusations denied in Moscow.
Whoever wins Sunday’s vote it is set to cause profound change for France, the world’s sixth-biggest economy, a permanent member of the UN security council and a global military power.
It is the first time neither of the country’s traditional parties has a candidate in the final round of the presidential election under the modern French republic, founded in 1958.
Macron would be France’s youngest-ever leader and was a virtual unknown three years ago when he was named economy minister, the launching pad for his sensational presidential bid.
He left Hollande’s Socialist government in August and formed En Marche, a political movement he says in neither of the left or the right and which has attracted 250,000 members.
The ex-investment banker’s programme pledges to cut state spending, ease labour laws, boost education in deprived areas and extend new protections to the self-employed.
He is also fervently pro-European and wants to re-energise the 28-member European Union, following Britain’s referendum vote last summer to leave.
“France is not a closed country. We are in Europe and in the world,” Macron said during Wednesday’s debate.
But Le Pen is hoping to spring a shock that would resonate as widely as Britain’s decision to withdraw from the EU or the unexpected triumph of US President Donald Trump.
First round winners
National Front leader Le Pen sees herself as part of the same backlash against globalisation that has emerged as a powerful theme in the US and in recent ballots in Britain, Austria and the Netherlands.
She has pledged to organise a referendum on withdrawing France from the EU and wants to scrap the euro, which she has dubbed a “currency of bankers.”
She has also vowed to reduce net immigration to 10,000 people a year, crack down on outsourcing by multinationals, lower the retirement age and introduce hardline measures to tackle Islamic extremists.
Many voters still see her party as anti-semitic and racist despite her six-year drive to improve its image.
Macron topped the first round of the presidential election on April 23 with 24.01 percent, followed by Le Pen on 21.30 per cent, in a crowded field of 11 candidates.
The results revealed Macron was favoured among wealthier, better educated citizens in cities, while Le Pen drew support in the countryside as well as poverty-hit areas in the south and rustbelt northeast.
Voting for the run-off started for French voters in north America and some overseas territories on Saturday.
With input from agencies
