(VOVworld) - French voters began casting ballots for the presidential election Sunday in a tense first-round poll that's seen as a test for the spread of populism around the world. Over 60,000 polling stations opened for voters who will choose between 11 candidates in the most unpredictable election in generations.

Opinion polls point to a tight race among the four top contenders vying to get into the May 7 presidential runoff that will decide who becomes France's next head of state. Polls suggest far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, an independent centrist and former economy minister, were in the lead. But conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, appeared to be closing the gap, as was far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon. Security was tight; the government mobilized more than 50,000 police and gendarmes to protect 70,000 polling stations, with an additional 7,000 soldiers on patrol. Security was a prominent issue after a wave of extremist attacks on French soil, including a gunman who killed a Paris police officer Thursday night before being shot dead by security forces.