The first and second rounds of the French presidential election voting have been scheduled for April 23 and May 7. The independent centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and the Front National leader Marine Le Pen are expected to be the two candidates entering the second round  run-off, according to recent opinion polls.

In the latest opinion poll from French pollster Ifop, Le Pen has stormed ahead with 25 percent of support. Macron comes in second with 20.5 percent, and Republicains candidate Francois Fillon trails with 18.5 percent, after he and his wife were hit by the so-called “Penelopegate” scandal.

The same poll found that Macron would win the second round run-off against Le Pen with 63 percent of the vote. Another opinion poll carried out by newspaper Les Echos and Radio Classique shows the same final result, that Macron would win 22 percent of the vote in round one, behind Le Pen's score of 25 percent, before going on to beat her with 66 percent to 34 percent in May's decisive second round of voting.

Macron, an advisor to Francois Hollande during his successful election campaign and later his economy minister, was one of the main figures that sought to forge flagship economic policies for the government's roadmap to revive sluggish growth and lower unemployment in France. He disclosed his political ambition after creating his own political movement "En Marche" (Forward) in April last year, vowing to lead the movement "to 2017 and to victory."

Le Pen, president of the populist Front National, is a vocal opponent of open immigration. Her anti-European Union rhetoric has aroused heated debate, with several market analysts fearing that if Le Pen wins the French election, it could lead to the fall of the European Union.

In the French electoral system, the candidate is elected if he or she wins 50 percent or more in the first round of voting, otherwise a second ballot is held, and the top two candidates go through to a second round. The candidate who wins the most votes in the second ballot is then elected as president.