A voter prepares to cast her ballot at a polling station in Henin-Beaumont, France, on April 23, 2017. French voters began casting their ballots Sunday morning in the first round of a historic presidential election that will weigh on the future of Europe. (Xinhua/Chen Yichen)聽

PARIS, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Some 28.54 percent of registered voters have casted their votes in the presidential election by 12:00 a.m. local time (1000 GMT) on Sunday, the French interior ministry said.

The figure is higher than that of the election in 2012, which stood at 28.29 percent at noon.

Polling stations at France's European continent opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and will run for a maximum of 12 hours. Those in the largest cities will close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT). In France's oversea territories, the voting was held on Saturday.

Around 47 million French voters are registered to cast their votes at some 69,000 polling stations.

The voting will winnow down a list of 11 candidates to two finalists for a runoff vote scheduled for May 7, if no one wins by at least 50 percent in the first round.

Out of the 11 candidates, four remain frontrunners in previous polls, namely the centrist former Minister of economy Emmanuel Macron, the far-rightist Marine Le Pen, the right-wing conservative Francois Fillon and the far-leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon.