This is how the French far right are claiming victory, despite coming second

On Sunday France held the first round of voting in the 2017 presidential election.

Emmanuel Macron's En Marche! campaign received 23.8 per cent of the vote, polling top of all candidates, ahead of the National Front Marine Le Pen's 21.5 per cent.

As a result of neither candidate earning a majority of the vote, both will now go into a run off election on the 7 May 2017, which sees the end of the campaign for all the other candidates, including the two major parties and far left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Francois Fillon of Les Républicains and Benoit Hamon of Parti Socialiste were also defeated.

However, some on the far right are claiming that Marine Le Pen is ahead, based on the fact she won 47 departments (constituencies), compared to Macron's 43, as the below map by Statista shows.

Following their elimination, both Fillon and Hamon endorsed Macron for president, and as a result Macron is the favourite for the Presidency, given a similar situation in the 2002 election between Jacques Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen

As other candidates backed Chirac, their support by and large followed their endorsements.

However, anything can happen. It's 2017.

The run off election is decided on 7 May, as elections only occur on Sundays in France.

More: François Fillon said he would stay on in the Presidential race and French Twitter went into meltdown