Free food
Rasheed Akim, a baker in Val-d’Oise region, is giving away a free croissant or a chocolate cookie to everyone who votes. All citizens need to do to enjoy the free treat is produce a properly stamped voter’s card.
“This is my way of mobilizing people to vote. To each one coming up to the counter I say a few words about my operation and they like it,” Rasheed was quoted as saying by France Info news portal.
Rasheed used the same tactic during the first-round vote when he encouraged some 20 people to cast their ballots to get a free cookie. He hopes that this time round there will be more people coming up.
A Cotes d’Armor bar owner Marc Le Badezet offers a glass of free wine to everyone who drops in after voting.
"This might look stupid, but I served some 200 free glasses of wine during the first round and I hope that there will be more coming in today,” he said.
Free ride
Not to be outdone, Cote d’Armor taxi driver Guillaume Hamon said he would offer a free lift to senior citizens willing to vote but unable to make it to the polling station on their own.
“I’ve been getting phone calls from cabbies from Bretagne, Paris and Marseille all willing to do the same thing,” he told France Info.
Turnout expectations
Polling places in overseas French territories opened at 6 a.m. GMT on Sunday.
According to the results of an Odoxa poll released just ahead of Sunday’s runoff, voter turnout could become the lowest since 1969, as only one in four registered French voters is willing to cast his or her ballot.
Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron took the top spot in the first round of the French presidential election held on April 23, gaining 24.1 percent of votes. His main rival, far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, came in second with 21.3 percent.
Macron is projected to win in Sunday’s runoff vote with an IPSOS/Sopra Streia poll seeing him garner 61.5 percent of votes, compared to just 38.5 percent for Marine Le Pen.
Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed!
