French President Emmanuel Macron faces a tough fight to win an absolute majority in parliament that would allow him to govern with a free hand after a strong showing by a new left-wing alliance in Sunday’s first-round election, writes CBC NEWS.

Projections based on the election’s partial results showed that at the national level, Macron’s party and its allies received about 25 to 26% of the vote. They were neck and neck with a new leftist coalition composed of hard-left, Socialist and Green Party supporters.

Yet Macron’s candidates are projected to win in a greater number of districts than their leftist rivals, giving the president a majority.

More than 6,000 candidates were running for 577 seats in France’s National Assembly in the first round of the election.

France’s 2-round voting system is complex and not proportionate to the nationwide support for a party. For races that did not have a decisive winner on Sunday, up to 4 candidates who received at least 12.5% support each will compete in a second round of voting on June 19.