Macron still ahead of Le Pen in voter intention, Ipsos poll shows

Ex-French economy minister Emmanuel Macron's lead over far-right rival Marine Le Pen widened according to the latest poll result from Ipsos Fiducial.

According to the Ipsos poll, published towards noon on 20 February, in a hypothetical run-off vote Macron would beat Le Pen by 61.5% to 38.5%, Market News International reported.

That was much more than the 16 point lead accorded to Macron in a separate Opinionway poll published earlier on Monday.

The second round vote was scheduled for 7 May.

In first round voting, scheduled for 23 April, Le Pen was seen garnering 26% of the vote, versus 19% for Macron and 18.5% for former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, Ipsos said.