Iran Press/ Europe: Just like the presidential election, parliamentary elections in France for the 577 seats function on a two-round system. If no one wins more than half of the vote in the first round, then all candidates who received at least 12.5 percent of registered voters qualify for a second round.
Based on 90 percent of the total votes counted on Sunday evening, Ensemble has collected 25.37 percent (5.1 million votes), while the pan-left NUPES led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon has so far gathered 24.31 percent (4.9 million votes), partial results from France's Interior Ministry showed.
The second round of voting is scheduled for June 19. If after that Ensemble falls short of the 289 thresholds for an absolute majority -- which major pollsters are projecting as a possibility, Emmanuel Macron will become the first reigning French president to not win a parliamentary majority since the 2000 electoral reform.
"The truth is that the presidential party, after the first round, is battered and defeated," Mélenchon claimed on Sunday after early projections were announced.
Sunday's voting was shadowed by low voter enthusiasm, with voter turnout projected at 47 percent according to Interior Ministry data -- the lowest for the first round of parliamentary elections since 1958, when the current French Fifth Republic was established.
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