In Metropolitan France, you will have to wait 8 hours to be able to slip your ballot into the ballot box.
But overseas and abroad, the ballot for the first round of the French presidential election began this Saturday.
The results cannot officially be known until 8 p.m. Sunday, as required by law.
St-Pierre-et-Miquelon got the ball rolling at 8 a.m. (noon in Paris), followed by Guyana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy.
Then comes the Pacific, with Polynesia which will start voting when it is 8 p.m. in Paris, Wallis and Futuna and New Caledonia.
In the Indian Ocean, where the time difference is less, Reunion will vote on Sunday at 6 a.m. Paris time and Mayotte at 7 a.m.
Presidential election 2022: voting operations have started in Guyana
🗳️ Guyanese voters have until 7 p.m. to carry out their civic duty and thus participate in the presidential election.
📱💻 https://t.co/hmpLCUnBxd pic.twitter.com/QwIeQM4CEf
— La1ere.fr (@la1ere) April 9, 2022
Some French people living abroad are also ahead, but those residing in Shanghai will not be able to vote, the largest city in China being confined in the name of the Chinese zero Covid strategy.
In France, surgical masks will be available in all polling stations.
Wearing them will not be compulsory, but “strongly recommended” for fragile people and those recently tested positive for Covid-19.
Fragile people may also request priority access.
A silence until 8 p.m.
Voters must decide between the 12 candidates, held to the utmost discretion until the close of the ballot, which promises to be tight between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, given favorites as in 2017, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the lookout .
The new element is the high rate of undecided voters, which poses “not insignificant” uncertainty on the ballot, according to political scientist Pascal Perrineau.
The National Commission for the Control of the Electoral Campaign and the Polling Commission also called on voters on Friday "to exercise the greatest caution" after the broadcast of text messages citing polls which are not polls and "which may constitute information misleading”.
Pending the first results on Sunday at 8 p.m., public meetings, distribution of leaflets and digital propaganda are prohibited.