Emmanuel Macron won 27.85 per cent of the votes in the first round of France's presidential election, while far-right veteran Marine Le Pen scored 23.15 per cent, according to final results from the interior ministry on Monday.
The results allow both to advance to a run-off, while far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon came in third at 21.95 per cent, knocking him out of the first round but still a higher score than many polls had predicted.
Analysts say his electorate will be key for determining how Macron and Le Pen will fare in the second round on April 24.
Among the nine other candidates only one scored above five per cent, the upstart far-right media pundit Eric Zemmour, who obtained 7.07 per cent and has called on his voters to support Le Pen.
Next was Valerie Pecresse of the conservative Republicans at 4.78 per cent, below the five per cent threshold for having campaign spending largely reimbursed by the state.
On Monday, she issued an emergency plea for donations to ensure her party's survival, saying she personally had racked up a campaign debt of five million euros ($5.5 million).
Greens candidate Yannick Jadot got 4.63 per cent, ruralist outsider Jean Lasalle got 3.13 per cent, Communist Fabien Roussel got 2.28 per cent, and far-right sovereigntist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan got 2.06 per cent.
Socialist Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, scored just 1.75 per cent, while anti-capitalists Philippe Poutou won 0.77 per cent and Nathalie Arthaud came in last at 0.56 per cent.
Turnout reached 73.69 per cent, resulting in abstentions of 26.31 per cent -- up to four percentage points from the abstentions of 22.2 per cent in the first round of 2017, which also saw Macron and Le Pen advance to the run-off.
