France's Socialists and allies from the Greens and the Front Left took the lead in the first round of parliamentary election on Sunday, bolstering President Francois Hollande's chances of implementing wide-ranging reforms.

Preliminary results of all available exit polls showed that left-wing parties won 47.1 percent of votes while Former President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) garnered 35.4 percent and the far-right National Front collected 13.4 percent.

In the Sunday election, vote percentages for the Socialists, the Green and the Left Front translated into a combined 305 to 353 seats out of 577-seat lower house of parliament.

"The French had said their support for change ... But, nothing is played. There is a need to call for a mobilization. If you French want to help the president to rehabilitate the country, to guarantee justice everywhere go to vote (in the second round) to consolidate the left victory," Martine Aubry, general secretary of the Socialist Party, told France 2 TV channel.

At the end of the day, rate of participation expected to turn out to a record 60 percent, mirroring a widespread feeling the left was certain to win with weakening UMP party after the defeat of Sarkozy to extend a second mandate.

A second and final round of voting is scheduled for June 17 to determine the makeup of an assembly that Hollande, at the start of a five-year term, needs to implement his campaign promises of boosting economy and reducing deficit.

After the Senate, the upper house of the parliament, already under left-wing control, opinion polls put the Socialists and coalition partners on course to seize a majority in the National Assembly in a decade.

Under France's electoral rules only candidates who win more than 50 percent of votes in the first round win the seat outright. If there is no clear winner, all candidates who win more than 12.5 percent in the first round qualify for the second round next Sunday.