" Voted !
Since this Sunday morning, across the country, the French have been going to their polling stations.
In the secrecy of the voting booth, they choose their favorite candidate in this first round of the presidential election.
Once out of the office, a long wait begins, above all for the candidates, to know the results.
The French media have indeed the formal prohibition to reveal the first tendencies before the closing of the polling stations.
This is obviously a precaution taken by the public authorities in order to prevent any influence of the voters on the smooth running of the ballot.
"No result, partial or definitive, can be communicated to the public through the press or by any means of communication to the public by electronic means, in mainland France, before the closing of the last polling station", it is thus written on the official site www.vie-publique.fr.
Foreign sites highly consulted on election days
In France, most polling stations close at 7 p.m. sharp.
Exceptions are provided for in certain cities, in order to postpone the closing of offices by one hour.
Before 8 p.m., the French media will therefore not publish any results.
And this even if they receive the first estimates from the counts of the offices that closed first.
But in the era of social networks, the French have the opportunity to learn very easily about the first trends known as "exit from the polls".
The polling institutes carry out surveys by questioning voters at the exit of polling stations.
They derive estimates that certain foreign media, in no way constrained by French law, do not hesitate to publish.
Thus in 2017, several Belgian media published the first official results well before 8 p.m.
The RTBF had for example published this on Twitter, at 5:23 p.m. on the day of the first round: "According to several converging surveys Macron is in the lead ahead of Le Pen, Fillon and Mélenchon in a pocket handkerchief".
#presidential2017: According to several converging surveys Macron is in the lead ahead of Le Pen, Fillon and Mélenchon in a pocket handkerchief
— RTBF info (@RTBFinfo) April 23, 2017
These anticipated publications had sparked the “radio London” phenomenon, when Internet users used disguised messages to announce the results of the first round.
In France, at 8 p.m., the first results revealed by the French media, including Le Parisien, will not be the final results.
These will be estimates from polling institutes based on the first counts.
These figures nevertheless remain very reliable, and will be refined during the evening by the services of the Ministry of the Interior, responsible for revealing the final results.