France’s Electoral Commission called Monday for polling stations in the May 6 presidential run-off to remain open later in order to prevent media leaking result predictions. The move came after several media outlets published embargoed result estimates from Sunday’s first-round vote, with prosecutors looking at pressing charges against media or individuals who published the estimates early. Opinion polls and exit polls are banned on election day, but polling institutes are present to begin counting when voting centres in small and medium sized towns and the countryside close at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT). They extrapolate the results into nationwide predictions that are usually highly accurate. The results are sent to media in France under embargo until all polling booths have closed at 8:00 pm, but unembargoed to foreign media. The advent of the Internet and the rapid spread of social networking sites means that it is however impossible to prevent French voters accessing the result estimates through foreign websites, Twitter or Facebook.
