French afternoon election turnout down 2 percentage points from 2017 - interior ministry

Turnout figures for the second round of France's presidential election on Sunday showed a 63.23% participation rate by 5 p.m. (1500 GMT), the interior ministry said, below the 65.30% recorded at the same time in the 2017 election.

The figures confirmed a trend forecast by polling institutes who said this year's final vote between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen would see the highest abstention level in over 50 years.

Voting started at 8 a.m. and will end at 8 p.m., when first projections of results are expected.