French presidential runoff kicks off between Macron, Le Pen

PARIS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The 2022 French presidential runoff kicked off at 8 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) on Sunday in Metropolitan France between incumbent President Emmanuel Macron and candidate Marine Le Pen.

Eligible voters on French overseas territories already cast their ballots on Saturday.

According to the results of the first round voting published by France's Constitutional Council, Macron won 9,783,058 votes, or 27.85 percent of valid ballots and his rival, Le Pen won 8,133,828 votes, or 23.15 percent.

During the first round voting held on April 10, 35,923,707 voters cast their ballots.