Melenchon bows out of French prez election

Paris, April 11 : French hardleft presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon will not be making to the second round of presidential elections, Melenchon campaign manager, Manuel Bompard, said on Monday. Taking to Twitter, Bombard said, “Tonight, @JLMelenchon will end up with nearly 22 per cent of the vote. It is an extraordinary result. Thank you to everyone who contributed…Unfortunately, this will not be enough to qualify for the second round.” France held its first round of the presidential election on Sunday. France 24 quoted the Ipsos/Sopra Steria as stating that President Emmanuel Macron topped the first-round contest, winning 27.6 percent of the vote ahead of Le Pen’s 23 percent score. However, Melenchon got only 22.2 per cent, narrowly falling short of a place in the final. In the first round, the voter turnout was quite low as about 26 percent of registered voters elected to stay home for the first-round, four points up on 2017 and uncomfortably close to the 2002 record of 28.4 percent, France24. RNJ