May 10, 2017•Update: May 11, 2017
By Hajer M'tiri
PARIS
Emmanuel Macron was proclaimed Wednesday the 25th president of the country by the Constitutional Council.
The centrist candidate won 66.1 percent of the vote in Sunday's run-off round whereas his rival, the far-right National Front leader, Marine Le Pen, got 33.9 percent, according to the official results announced by the head of the Council, Laurent Fabius at a news conference.
Macron, 39, has now officially become the eighth and the youngest president of the Fifth Republic.
"The Constitutional Council, on May 10, 2017, proclaims Mr. Emmanuel Macron the elected president of the French Republic having obtained an absolute majority of the votes cast," Fabius told reporters in the presence of the Council members.
Fabius said the candidate of the En Marche! (On the move) movement garnered 20,743,128 votes while the National Front candidate got 10,638,475 votes.
The head of the highest constitutional authority in France said the abstention rate was 25.44 percent. It is the highest since 1969 when a record 31.1 percent abstained from voting for either of the two centre-right candidates: Georges Pompidou and Alain Poher.
According to the Council, the outgoing French President Francois Hollande will delegate his powers to Macron on Sunday, May 14.
Macron is set to appoint a prime minister and form a government as soon as he takes office.
