French far-right party likely to win most votes in 2nd round of election

The French far-right National Rally party and its allies are predicted to win the most support in the second round of voting in the country's parliamentary election on Sunday.

The National Rally alliance garnered more than 30 percent of the vote in the first round of voting for the lower house of the National Assembly last week.

The leftist alliance, the New Popular Front, came in second. The ruling centrist coalition, which is led by President Emmanuel Macron, came in third. The snap election was called by Macron last month.

Runoffs are set to be held in 501 of the 577 electoral districts where there were no winners in the first round.

The ruling coalition and the New Popular Front are working together against the far-right forces. They are supporting unified candidates.

On Friday, the research firm Ipsos released its projections that were based on an opinion poll.

It says the National Rally alliance will likely win between 175 and 205 seats.

It believes the New Popular Front will get 145 to 175 seats, and it estimates that the ruling camp will obtain between 118 and 148 seats.

The left-wing New Popular Front and the centrist ruling group are expected to win more seats than they were projected to win last week, but they will likely be outnumbered by the far-right alliance.

Voter turnout in the first round stood at 66.7 percent. That figure is up 19 percentage points from the previous election two years ago.

The turnout for Sunday's runoff is expected to be about the same.

Polling stations open at 8 a.m. on Sunday and vote-counting will begin during the day.