France goes to the polls in presidential election

Voting is underway in the final round of France’s presidential election after an unpredictable campaign that has divided the country.

The second round contest pits centrist Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old former investment banker, against the far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen, 48.

The polls opened in metropolitan France at 8am local time on Sunday and close at 7pm. Polling stations will remain open in some big cities until 8pm, with early estimates of the result due to be reported immediately after they close.

The two candidates, who topped a field of 11 presidential hopefuls in the first round election on 23 April, have offered voters starkly different visions of France.

Macron is a staunch defender of the postwar liberal order and the European Union, while Le Pen has campaigned on a platform of nationalism and “intelligent protectionism”, arguing that globalisation has hurt the ordinary French people. She wants France to abandon the euro in the domestic economy, and hold a referendum on France's EU membership.

Macron is widely expected to win the vote, but analysts have warned that high abstention rates could damage his chances.

The campaign has been marked by its unpredictability, and in a final twist on Friday evening, soon before campaigning officially ended, Macron's En Marche! political movement said it had been the victim of a "massive" hack, with a trove of documents released online.The documents appeared to contain details of emails and financial data from Macron’s campaign, and his team has said real documents were mixed up with fake ones.

En Marche compared the hack to the leak of Democratic Party emails in last year's US presidential election that was blamed on Russian hackers.

Electoral authorities warned media and the public that spreading details of the attack would breach strict election rules and could bring criminal charges.

On Saturday, French President François Hollande promised to “respond” to the attack.