France votes in presidential election after volatile campaign

Breaking News: France votes in presidential election after the volatile campaign.

Voters leave their booths in the 7th district in Paris on Sunday to cast their ballots.

Story highlights:

• The final days of campaigning were shaken by an attack on police in Paris.
• CNN News:

Paris (CNN)French citizens are voting for their next President on Sunday following a volatile campaign period that was overshadowed by a terror attack on police in Paris last week.

With 11 names on the ballot, no one candidate is expected to win an outright majority. Only four leading contenders are seen as having a realistic prospect of making it through to the second-round vote in May.

The frontrunners are far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, scandal-hit conservative François Fillon, centrist newcomer Emmanuel Macron and far-left wildcard Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The top two in Sunday's vote will face off on May 7 for the second and final round of voting.

The beginner's guide to the French elections

Some 47 million people are registered to vote, and latest polls suggest the results are too close to call. That means France could end up with a choice between candidates from the far-left and far-right, or a far-right stalwart facing off against a political novice. With such a fractured field, no one is expected to win a majority in Sunday's first round.

Benoit Hamon is the mainstream left-wing Socialist Party nominee but polls suggest he has struggled to gain traction.

Soldiers guard the Eiffel Tower area in Paris on Sunday as security is stepped up for the presidential vote.

Security, immigration major issues

Polls opened at 8 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET) Sunday across the country, and by midday, around 30% of voters had cast their ballots. Initial results expected in the evening.
Security has been stepped up for the vote, taking place at 70,000 polling stations. Extra police have been deployed to the streets of Paris and elsewhere.

French President Francois Hollande cast his vote in Tulle in southwestern France. Hollande has been so unpopular in his presidency, he made the unusual decision not to run for a second term.

France suffered the worst terror attack on its soil under Hollande's watch, with 130 people killed in the Paris attacks in November 2015.

It's not yet clear how the vote will be affected by the attack Thursday on the landmark Champs Elysees boulevard in Paris, in which a policeman was killed.

But it was certainly in the minds of the candidates, including Hollande, who acknowledged France was experiencing troubled times.

"We are in a period, but this period is neither recent nor over, so we have to mobilize a lot of resources, in particular for the two days of a vote for the presidential election and then the legislatives. And for the French I think it is the best message they can send, it's to show that democracy is stronger than anything."

Security has inevitably been an issue in campaigning, as have immigration and the economy. Many voters think current immigration policies have exacerbated France's unemployment problems and contributed to the deadly terror attacks of the past couple of years.

The main candidates canceled campaign events Friday -- the last day of campaigning -- and instead made televised statements in which they competed to talk tough on security and vowed a crackdown on ISIS, which claimed the attack.

Details:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/23/europe/french-presidential-election-vote/index.html