France was on edge yesterday on the eve of its most unpredictable presidential election in decades, which will take place under heightened security after the terrorist killing of a policeman.

The Daesh-claimed slaying of the officer on Paris’s Champs Elysees avenue thrust questions of security to the fore of campaigning after nine months of relative calm.

Nearly a quarter of 47 million registered voters are still undecided, and surveys showed until now the French to be more concerned about jobs and the economy than terrorism. But analysts warned Thursday’s shooting could change that.
The top two vote getters in the tight, four-way contest will head to a run-off on May 7.

Authorities in Paris have offered additional guards for hundreds of polling stations in the capital, which will come on top of an already major security plan. Voters headed to the polls yesterday in many of France’s overseas territories like Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, as well as in the US.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen moved quickly to present herself as the strongest defender against Islamist radicals in a country under a state of emergency since a string of terror attacks that began in 2015, which have killed more than 230 people.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron and conservative Francois Fillon also hastily convened televised briefings in which they vowed to protect the country.

Communist-backed firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, 65, was the only one of the four to stick to his schedule. He called for a “Europe of rebels”, during a rally in Paris with Pablo Iglesias, the head of Spain’s far-left Podemos party.

Meanwhile, intelligence services have warned riots could break out in cities across France after results are announced of the first round, reports said. 

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