Low turnout spoils election

PARIS: Voters turned out in low numbers yesterday in the second round of France’s parliamentary election, in which President Emmanuel Macron was expected to win a landslide majority that should allow him to embark on far-reaching pro-business reforms.

The vote came just a month after the 39-year-old former banker became the youngest head of state in modern French history, promising to clean up French politics and revive the euro zone’s second-biggest economy.

Macron’s centrist Republic on the Move party is barely a year old, yet pollsters project it will win 75% to 80% of the seats in the 577seat lower house. A low turnout, though, reflected voter fatigue.