France's Macron seen beating Le Pen in presidential runoff - polls

PARIS (Reuters) - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen will lose in an election runoff for president to centrist Emmanuel Macron, though she still appears certain to take lead position in the first round, two opinion polls of voting intentions showed on Wednesday. The election is being held on April 23 and May 7. An Elabe poll showed Le Pen coming first in the first round with 25.5-26 percent of the vote against 22-23.5 percent for Macron - figures roughly similar to a poll by Ifop Fiducial which gave figures of 26 percent for Le Pen and 21 percent for Macron. Both showed scandal-hit conservative candidate Francois Fillon trailing in third place on about 18 percent. The Elabe poll showed Le Pen, who heads the anti-immigrant and anti-EU National Front, losing the run-off to Macron, an ex-banker, by 37 percent to 63 percent - close to similar readings of 36 percent and 64 percent produced by Ifop Fiducial. Elabe also showed Fillon beating Le Pen in the knockout by 56 percent to 44 percent, were he to get through to the second round. (Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Ingrid Melander)