Macron landslide due, voting at new low

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 (LREM) party is little more than a year old, yet pollsters project it will win as many as 75% to 80% of the seats in the 577-seat lower house.

Turnout, though, was on course for a record low, a sign of voter fatigue after seven months of campaigning and voting – and also of disillusionment and anger with politics that could eventually complicate Macron’s reform drive.

Interior Ministry data showed turnout at 17.75% by noon local time, its lowest ever at that time of day for a second round of parliamentary elections since at least 1997.