The first exit polls show Emmanuel Macron garnered 28.1% of the votes in the first round of voting, while rival Marine Le Pen received 23.3% of the votes.
Different exit polls have slightly different figures, but they all clearly show that incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen are through to the second round, as had been widely predicted by opinion polls throughout the campaign.
This means the second round is between the same two candidates as at the last presidential election in 2017.
In third place was hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who had about 20% of the votes.
