Pacific

New Caledonia pro-indepedence camp chooses candidates for French election

13:05 pm on 14 May 2012

The parties making up New Caledonia's pro-independence FLNKS movement have agreed to nominate a joint candidate in each of the two electorates choosing a member of the French National Assembly next month.

They have chosen the Caledonian Union's Robert Xowie, who is a former president of the Loyalty Islands province, and Jean-Pierre Djaiwe of the Palika party and the vice-president of the Northern Province.

The movement is confident that it can win one of the two Paris seats in view of the disagreement among the anti-independence candidates, particularly in the electorate that excludes Noumea.

The two seats were held by politicians of the Rassemblement-UMP, but one has been vacant since September when Pierre Frogier was made a French Senator.