Francois Fillon gestures toward his supporters after declaring victory in the presidential Republican party's runoff primary at Maison de la Chimie in Paris on November 27, 2016. Photo by Yoan Valat/European Press Agency

Far-right candidate for the 2017 French presidential election Marine Le Pen speaks during a campaign rally in Paris on April 17, 2017. Front-runners Le Pen and Centrist Emmanuel Macron held rival rallies ahead of Sunday’s first round presidential vote. Photo by Maya Vidon-White/UPI | License Photo

Supporters cheer centrist candidate for the 2017 French presidential election Emmanuel Macron during a campaign rally in Paris on April 17, 2017. Overseas voters began to cast their ballots in various French territories on Saturday ahead of the mainland votes on Sunday. Photo by Maya Vidon-White/UPI | License Photo

April 22 (UPI) -- French citizens living overseas began casting their ballots in the first round of the presidential elections a day ahead of the vote in France.

Voters in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the French archipelago south of the Canadian island of Newfoundland, Guiana in South America and French Polynesia began voting on Saturday.

French islands Reunion and Mayotte were scheduled to begin voting on Sunday two hours and one hour earlier than the mainland respectively.

The overseas votes are set to be collected and sent to France early to prevent overseas voters from being influenced by the results of the mainland due to time differences.

A blackout on opinion polls was also issued in France at midnight on Friday.

Two out of the eleven eligible candidates will be selected to participate in a runoff vote on May 5.

Emmanuel Macron of the centralist En Marche! party, Marine Le Pen of the far-right Nationalist party and Francois Fillon of the center-right Republican party are among the more popular candidates for the presidency.

France promised tight security at the ballots, including tens of thousands of police and other security personnel on duty, as tensions rose and the threat of terrorism became a focal point prior to the election.

A knife-wielding man was arrested after causing a panic in Gare du Nord train station in Paris on Saturday, two days after a man shot a police officer dead and injured two others in Paris.

On April 19, French police also arrested two men on suspicion of planning a violent attack during the election after it was found they had an apartment hideout containing firearms and explosives. </s> France's turbulent presidential election season is finally reaching the end game for Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. Here's what you need to know to get you to the final vote on Sunday, and a little beyond.

After Wednesday night's raucous debate, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron have just one day left to campaign hard in a final bid to influence voters.

The final campaign stop for Macron was the town Rodez in southern France while Marine Le Pen caused a stir by announcing a surprise visit to Reims Cathedral in north eastern France.

The local mayor, a member of the Republicans party was not impressed, reminding the anti-EU far right leader that Reims was a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation and a city that was "turned towards Europe".

They continued their appearances on the media with Macron responding to questions on radio station RTL on Friday morning while Le Pen has been invited on channel M6 at 7.45pm.

The day before the result is announced is a chance for a bit of a break from the election circus for candidates and the press as both campaigning and publishing polls aren't allowed by French law. The official campaign ends at midnight on Friday and any French media caught publishing polls after that would be slapped with a €75,000 fine.

"Election silence" for a limited period of time before the vote is fairly common and used in countries such as Australia, Ireland, Spain and Italy, often as a "cooling off day" for reflection to create a voting environment that's a little less pressurized.

On the big day French people will head to the polls from 8am to 7pm, or until 8pm in the big cities. One petition is going around to get people to vote after 5pm on Sunday to send Macron a message of their reluctance to vote for him.

Where will the candidates be on Sunday?

The candidates themselves get to vote too. Macron will vote in the northern seaside town of Touquet where he and his wife Brigitte have long been registered. Le Pen will again vote in Hénin-Beaumont, the northern National Front-run town where she held her election night in the first round.

Macron has yet to announce where he will hold his election night event but it will be in Paris.

Le Pen's team said her event will be in the capital this time, to the relief of the scores of international journalists who had to figure out how to reach Hénin-Beaumont in the first round.

She will spend the evening at the Bois de Vincennes to the east of the city for the result, and a celebration afterwards (whether she wins or loses).

Both events will be packed with supporters, staff and hundreds of French and international media, including The Local France.

Join us from 3pm on Sunday for our live coverage.

The crucial result will be announced once again at 8pm, when the image of the next president of France will be shown on TV screens, prompting either wild celebrations or groans of despair among the public.

The photo below shows the moment François Hollande's face was broadcast when he won in 2012.

The result is based on the votes counted in 250 designated polling stations around the country that are considered to be have an accurate cross section of French voters. Hence the initial percentages given at 8pm can change slightly as the rest of the votes are counted.

However these days with social media and foreign media who don't stick to the strict rules it's hard to keep the results under wraps until 8pm.

Station Radio Londres is notorious for side-stepping the election silence rule and releasing polls and estimations before 8pm. The French public are told to be wary of the unofficial results and rumours spreading around on the election weekend.

The "official" final figures won't be announced until May 11th.

In 2012 thousands thronged into Place de la Bastille to celebrate François Hollande becoming the first Socialist president to be elected since 1988.

But it's unsure whether there will be such a spontaneous public outpouring of joy and emotion in Paris on Sunday, regardless of the result.

Le Pen plans to celebrate at the Bois de Vincennes to the east of Paris, whether she wins or not, while Macron is set to celebrate in the iconic Esplanade du Louvre where the pyramids are, but only if he becomes president.

Whoever wins on May 7th will be inaugurated between the 11th and the 14th May, the date when Francois Hollande's mandate runs out.

There will be a formal "passing over of powers" as well as the traditional trip to the City Hall in Paris.

But election season isn't quite over as the regional "legislative" elections begin their first round on June 11th, and second round on June 18th.

And then it's off to work for the next five years before we do it all again. </s> The voting booths have opened in France . For the next twelve hours, the French will decide which two presidential candidates will move on to the next round.

The voting started at 8 am Sunday morning. They close at 8 pm in the larger cities and at 7 in smaller places.

Eleven candidates participate in the first round of the presidential election. The two candidates who get the most votes continue on to the final round of presidential elections on May 7th unless in the unlikely event that anyone gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round.

A total of 47 million people are entitled to vote in France, including 1.3 million French nationals living elsewhere.

In the last 44 hours preceding the election, it is, under French law, illegal to campaign. The last polls were therefore presented on Friday evening.

Both give the independent centre candidate Emmanuel Macron a lead over the National Front Leader Marine Le Pen, followed by the conservative candidate François Fillon, the liberal candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon. </s> France begins voting in second round of parliamentary election

Voting stations opened in France on Sunday for the second round of parliamentary elections, with opinion polls indicating President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Republic on the Move party likely to win a massive majority in the lower house, Reuters reported.

Turnout could fall to a record low, in a sign of voter fatigue after seven months of roller-coaster campaigning and voting, and of disillusionment with politics that could complicate Macron's reform drive. </s> French natives are turning out in droves in the Canadian province of Quebec to cast a ballot in France’s presidential runoff.

The French consul general in Montreal said more than 57,000 people registered to vote in the province, an overwhelming majority of them in Montreal.

READ MORE: French expats turn out in droves to vote in Montreal

In the first round of voting two weeks ago,long lines formed in Montreal as people waited to cast their vote.

While the presidential election in France takes place Sunday, those not in the country must vote Saturday.

READ MORE: Emmanuel Macron campaign emails leaked online days before French presidential vote

The presidential runoff pits centrist Emmanuel Macron and his pro-European vision against far-right Marine Le Pen and her protectionist views, which resonate with jobless workers.

Voting also took place Saturday elsewhere in Canada, including the French Embassy in Ottawa. Scarves and jackets were the dress code at voting stations on the French islands of Saint-Pierre and

Miquelon off the chilly northeastern coast of Canada. </s> PARIS — Voters waking up in some French overseas territories are preparing to vote first in France's unpredictable presidential election — one day earlier than in the mainland.

Political campaigning is banned from Saturday across France, and online, as voters in far-flung areas such as French Polynesia, Guiana, Guadeloupe cast ballots for one of the 11 candidates.

The mad-dash campaigning of the last few weeks came to a premature end Friday, hours after a gunman killed a police officer on the famed Champs-Elysees.

Major candidates their last campaign day events Friday over security concerns including the National Front's Marine Le Pen, Les Republicans' Francois Fillon and centrist Emmanuel Macron.

Opinion polls suggest that at least four candidates have a chance of grabbing one of the two places in the May runoff. </s> Voters across France are casting ballots in a presidential election run-off that could decide Europe’s future, choosing between independent Emmanuel Macron and far-right populist Marine Le Pen.

With Mr Macron the pollsters’ favourite, voting stations opened across mainland France at 8am under the watch of 50,000 security forces guarding against extremist attacks.

Polling agency projections and initial official results will be available when the final stations close at 8pm.

The unusually tense and unpredictable campaign ended with a hacking attack and document leak targeting Mr Macron on Friday night.

Either candidate would lead France into uncharted territory since neither comes from the mainstream parties that dominate parliament and have run the country for decades. </s> Amid heightened security, French voters began casting ballots for their next president Sunday in a first-round poll that's seen as a litmus test for the spread of populism around the world and a vote on the future of Europe.

More than 50,000 police and gendarmes were deployed to the 66,000 polling stations for Sunday's election, which comes after Thursday's deadly attack on the Champs-Elysees in which a police officer and a gunman were slain. The presidential poll is the first ever to be held during a state of emergency, put in place since the Paris attacks of November 2015.

Voters are choosing between 11 candidates in the most unpredictable contest in decades.

The vote "is really important, mainly because we really need a change in this country with all the difficulties we are facing and terrorism," said Paris resident Alain Richaud, who was waiting to cast his vote.

Opinion polls point to a tight race among the four leading contenders vying to advance to the May 7 presidential runoff, when the top two candidates will go head to head.

Polls suggest far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, an independent centrist and former economy minister, were in the lead. But conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, who was embroiled in a scandal over alleged fake jobs appeared to be closing the gap, as was far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.

France's 10 percent unemployment, its lackluster economy and security were issues that top concerns for the 47 million eligible voters.

The election is widely seen as a vote on the future of the European Union — with most of the candidates railing against its institutions.

Both Le Pen and Melenchon — two candidates from opposite extremes of the political spectrum — could pull France out of the 28-nation bloc and its shared euro currency in a so-called "Frexit."

A French exit could spell the end of the EU.

If either candidate wins a spot in the runoff, it will be seen as a victory for the rising wave of populism reflected by the votes for Donald Trump in the U.S. and Brexit in Britain.

"It's definitely risky, but I have faith in the result even if an extreme candidate qualifies for the second round," said Beatrice Schopflin, who was queuing to vote in Paris.

Macron and Fillon are committed to European unity and would reform labor rules.

The candidates are voting throughout the day.

Meters from the polling station where Le Pen was heading to vote, several feminist activists from the Femen group were arrested after staging a topless protest against the far-right leader, who is the only major female contender in the race. Police intervened and stopped the commotion minutes before the 48-year-old arrived to cast her ballot in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont. No one was hurt.

Macron, meanwhile, was the image of serenity as he posed for selfies with voters after casting his ballot in the coastal town of Le Touquet in northern France alongside his wife, Brigitte Macron.

Fillon voted in Paris, but his wife — who's been handed preliminary charges for her role in the fake jobs scandal that rocked her husband's campaign — voted 250 kilometers (155 miles) away from him near their 14th century manor house in Sarthe.

This year's roller-coaster campaign has seen much controversy, but some voters appear to have become blasé or turned off from politics.

"There have been surprises, there have always been scandals," said Le Touquet resident Pierre-Antoine Guilluy.

Voter Marie-Christine Colrat said: "Listen, too many candidates. And candidates that caused us a lot of problems, I think that's not a good thing for France."

Unpopular incumbent President Francois Hollande, who pledged last year not to stand for re-election, voted in his political fiefdom of Tulle in Correze, southwestern France.

This year's Socialist party presidential candidate Benoit Hamon cast his ballot in Trappes, a Paris suburb. Melenchon also voted in Paris.

Political campaigning was banned from midnight Friday hours ahead of polls opening in France's far-flung overseas territories such as Guadeloupe, French Polynesia and French Guiana, which all voted a day early Saturday.

Associated Press writers Nadine Achoui-Lesage in Paris, Chris den Hond in Le Touquet and Alex Turnbull in Henin-Beaumont contributed to this report. </s> MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The first round of the French Socialist Party primaries to determine the presidential nominee finished on earlier Sunday.

"According to the results obtained from 3,090 polling stations, Benoit Hamon receives 35.21% of votes, Manuel Valls gets 31.56%, Arnaud Montebourg gains support of 18.70% voters," the High Authority said.

The polling stations closed at 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT). The turnout at the primaries was rather low, with some 1.7-1.9 million people casting their ballots.

The two top candidates will participate in the second round of primaries set for January 29.

The PS candidate will have to face French far-right National Front leader Le Pen, center-right The Republicans’ nominee Francois Fillon and independent candidate from the left Emmanuel Macron as his or her most important competitors.

The first round of the French presidential elections will take place on April 23.

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Voting begins in territories and diplomatic missions west of Metropolitan France for the second round of the presidential election between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.