Prague, May 8 (CTK) – Most of the French citizens who cast their ballots in the presidential election run-off at the French embassy in Prague on Sunday voted for Emmanuel Macron, the embassy has announced on its website, adding that Macron gained 1,146 votes and Marine Le Pen, the rival candidate, 136 votes.
Macron, a centrist liberal, defeated the far-right Le Pen and was elected the new French president.
In the first round of the election two weeks ago, Macron was supported by over 500 voting French, i.e. almost 40 percent of them, at the embassy in Prague.
Some 4,000 French citizens, including children, stay in the Czech Republic. A total of 2,462 French citizens registered at the embassy for the second round of the election.
Out of them 1,343 turned up, casting a total of 1,282 valid ballots, the embassy wrote.
About 50 envelopes cast were empty and about ten ballots were invalid.
“Some voters cast empty envelopes in order to make it clear that they want neither of the two candidates,” Helena Briard, a member of the election commission, told Czech Television after the balloting ended on Sunday evening.
In Prague, French election turnout has usually been about 60 percent.
In the first round of the latest election, it reached 57.4 percent, falling to 54.55 in the second round.
Some voters might have been discouraged by the long queue that appeared outside the embassy in the historical centre of Prague during the first round balloting.
On the election run-off day, a short queue appeared only temporarily around 11:00, but the place remained rather empty for the rest of the day.
Former French PM Francois Fillon ended second in the Prague first round balloting, followed by leftist radical Jean-Luc Melenchon. Marine Le Pen, finished only fifth in Prague, far behind Macron and Fillon.
rtj/dr
