High-stakes French election hits final stretch before first-round voting begins

The country’s two-round system of voting means the election’s ultimate outcome is uncertain (Christophe Ena/AP)

Candidates standing in the snap French legislative election called by President Emmanuel Macron were making their last campaign pushes ahead of the first round of voting on Sunday.

It is a pivotal and polarising poll in which Mr Macron’s centrist government risks a potentially fatal beating at the hands of the surging far right.