French Constitutional Council certifies Macron's election victory

PARIS - France's Constitutional Council on Wednesday certified the results of the country's recent presidential election, confirming Emmanuel Macron as president.

Of France's 48,752,339 registered voters, 35,096,478 cast their ballots, bringing the abstention rate to 28.01 percent, said Laurent Fabius, president of the council.

Macron won the second round of the election held on April 24 with an absolute majority of 18,768,638 votes (58.55 percent of the valid ballots cast).

According to law, Macron's second term must begin no later than May 14.

Macron's rival, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, received 13,288,686 votes or 41.45 percent.