France goes to the polls on Sunday in the first round of presidential elections, when the two highest-placed candidates out of a total of 12 will move on to the final deciding round on April 24th. While opinion surveys see a tightening race, with the far-right's Marine Le Pen closing in on Emmanuel Macron's lead, and radical-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon lying third, one of the key factors that can sway the outcome is turnout, a regular imponderable in French elections and which, as in the past, may yet upset poll predictions. Mathilde Goanec reports.
As France gears up for the first round of presidential elections on Sunday, one of the major question marks over the results is how strong the abstention rate will be.
