Paris: As the election heat is only getting intensified in France, the incumbent president Emmanuel Macron will now be facing his nearest rival Marine Le Pen after Macron won his first round of the French election held on Sunday.

Macron is fighting polls to retain his post as he has been challenged by Marine Le Pen. While Macron has had a convincing win in the first round, opinion polls suggest that the run-off could be much closer. Le Pen has called upon every non-Macron voter to join her and "put France back in order".

With 96 per cent of results counted, Emmanuel Macron got 27.42 per cent of the vote, Marine Le Pen 24.03 per cent and Jean-Luc Mélenchon 21.57 per cent. Veteran far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon was polled even better than he did five years ago and has emerged as the unlikely kingmaker. "You must not give a single vote to Marine Le Pen," he told his supporters, but he pointedly did not back the president either. Twelve candidates were in the fray, but these were the only three who polled more than 10 per cent of the votes. 

As the counting continues, it would be interesting to know who will finally clinch the title and who will gain the support of the voters in France.

Macron who is fighting to retain his position as president has not left any stone unturned to ensure his victory, however, the analysts believe that the road to victory for Macron is thorny as he has an uphill task this time to win.
His nearest rival Le Pen is giving a tough fight and the victory margin is going to be very thin when looking at the neck-to-neck fight going on.