This Condition May Help Marine Le Pen Become Next French President

While exit polls predict Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French election runoff, several Belgian experts believe that Marine Le Pen's victory is possible with a specific condition met.

According to a political scientist from the Liege University, Dr. Pierre Verjans, low voter turnout may help right-wing French presidential candidate Le Pen win the presidential election runoff.

"The lower the turnout is, the more chances to win Marine Le Pen has," Belgian RTBF broadcaster cited Verjans as saying.

Managing Director Dedicated Resources Belgium Marc Dumoulin expressed the same opinion.

"For Marine Le Pen to succeed, the abstention rate in the voting needs to be 44%," he told RTL.

According to first exit polls in mainland France, Macron is projected to win the Sunday French presidential election with over 60 percent of votes.

The first official results of the runoff election will be announced by the country's Interior Ministry at 8 p. m. local time (18:00 GMT). French media outlets are prohibited to publish exit polls data before the official announcement of the election's results.

The polling stations opened in France at 8 a.m. local time on Sunday. In the second round of the vote, two candidates face each other: independent Emmanuel Macron, the leader of "En Marche!" movement, who got 24 percent of the votes in the first round, and right-wing Marine Le Pen, who came second with 21 percent of the votes.

The French Interior Ministry said the turnout in the runoff is estimated at 65.30 percent as of 15:00 GMT. Sopra-Steria and Harris Interactive institutes estimate that 26-27 percent of French voters would abstain from the presidential election runoff.

According to exit polls covering the presidential runoff voting in France’s overseas territories, Macron is coming ahead of Le Pen with over 60 percent of votes in his favor.

The first round of the election took place on April 23.