France's public broadcaster says the left-wing New Popular Front alliance is projected to emerge as the largest force in the lower house of parliament as a result of Sunday's runoff election. But it expects the bloc to fall short of a majority.

The media outlet announced the predictions based on independent forecasts by pollsters and other data. Polling stations for the second round of voting closed at 8 p.m.

The broadcaster says the New Popular Front may gain 177 to 192 out of the 577 seats in the National Assembly. It adds that President Emmanuel Macron's centrist ruling camp may acquire 152 to 158, while the far-right National Rally party and its allies may win 138 to 145.

The National Rally took the largest share of the vote in the first round of the election on June 30. But the New Popular Front joined forces with Macron's ruling camp to field unified candidates as part of their efforts to block the National Rally in the runoff.

Macron called the snap election as his coalition saw a huge defeat at the hands of the National Rally in European Parliament elections in June.