Polling opens under tight security in presidential first round

France began voting Sunday under heavy security in the first round of the most unpredictable presidential election in decades, with the outcome seen as vital for the future of the beleaguered European Union.

A woman prepares to cast her ballot to vote in the first round of 2017 French presidential election at a polling station in Trappes, near Paris, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

Polling stations opened at 0600 GMT and the last will close at 1800 GMT with estimated results expected shortly afterwards.

This amid armed and uniformed security personnel, a move that may reassure the public after the death of a policeman on the Champs-Élysées Thursday, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

"The government is fully mobilised,” French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after an emergency meeting of top security officials on Friday. “Nothing must be allowed to impede the fundamental democratic process of our country.”

This weekend’s election will mark the first time in recent memory that polling stations have been protected by armed police and soldiers. But not every voter will pass an armed guard -- there are more voting stations than there are personnel to guard them.

The plans to reinforce election-day security predates Thursday night’s attack, having been announced last weekend by Interior Minister Matthias Fekl in an interview with French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.

Fekl said that 50,000 policemen and 7,000 soldiers would be deployed to protect the nation’s 67,000 voting sites, both Sunday and in the May 7 second round.

Asked by the paper if he feared an attack might be planned to disrupt the election, he replied: “No threat is being ruled out.”
The threat of terrorism is “permanently high", he said, citing the recent attacks in London, Stockholm and the 19 terror-related arrests that were made last month in France.

French daily Le Monde reported that Fekl asked municipalities to make sure that officials at every polling station have a direct telephone number for security forces. “I ask each of your services, especially in rural areas where the voting points are remote from each other, to be ready,” he reportedly urged.

Some localities are reinforcing national efforts. In Nice, where a truck ploughed through a crowd celebrating the July 14 holiday last year, killing 86 people, the city will deploy its own security agents at each of the 252 voting stations, in addition to municipal police.