As well as this, far-right candidate Le Pen is facing her own investigation into "fake jobs" at the European Parliament, and there was recently a probe into a Las Vegas event attended by centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron when he was finance minister.

For Gilles Finkelstein, of the Fondation Jean-Jaurès, and Martial Foucault, director of Cevipov, the first reason for abstention is "dissatisfaction, that 'no candidate seems convincing to me'," found among moderates who feel the so-called mainstream Right and Left parties are too extreme and that Emmanuel Macron doesn't fit the bill.

The second motive is "anger, a desire to show one's annoyance, which concerns above all pensioners who choose not to vote".

The third is a "sense of futility, that 'it will change nothing', and this disillusionment is above all shared by those who have a hard life - youths, workers, employees, those who find it hard to make ends meet and feel they are slipping down the social ladder."

While all candidates deny any wrongdoing, such scandal-plagued headlines help to contribute to a sense of apathy among the general public.

Lessons to be learned from Trump's victory

With so many voters still undecided about who they will vote for, levels of uncertainty are high.