Emmanual Macron may have won convincingly Sunday's first round of the French presidential election in the Pacific territories, but the vote was marred by unprecedented levels of abstention.
More than two thirds of the electorate in New Caledonia and French Polynesia didn't vote after pro-independence parties called on their supporters to ignore the election.
Photo: AFP
In Ouvea in New Caledonia, more than 96 percent of voters abstained, while in the French Polynesian town of Papara, more than 84 percent abstained.
New Caledonia's members of the French parliament hailed the incumbent Emmanuel Macron's strong result.
He won more than 40 percent of the vote in New Caledonia, which was higher than in mainland France.
France-wide he won 28 percent, followed by the National Rally's Marine Le Pen on 23 percent, with both therefore qualifying for the run-off election on April 24 in what will be a repeat of the 2017 contest, which was won by Macron by some distance.
In a joint statement, MPs Gerard Poadja, Philippe Dunoyer and Philippe Gomes said Macron is the only one offering a new political perspective for New Caledonia within the framework of a draft referendum in June 2023.
In December, Paris announced such a plebiscite to anchor the territory within France after New Caledonian voters rejected independence in three referendums.
The president of the Southern Province Sonia Backes said it was important for New Caledonians to show that the president had been there for them, referring to his support in the referendum process.
This has been echoed by Nicolas Metzdorf of anti-independence party Generations NC who viewed Macron's high score as the result of having organised the three referendums.
Metzdorf told La Premiere TV that Macron showed "a firmness in the face of demands by the pro-independence side which were sometimes quite grotesque."
"It is the desire to inscribe New Caledonia in the France of the Pacific of the 21st century and also a way to keep the link between all of us", he said.
The camp supporting Le Pen hopes the second round will improve her score, saying with fewer abstentions expected, the votes will be redistributed.
With 19 percent of the votes in both New Caledonia and French Polynesia, she had less support than in 2017.
Then Le Pen went on to score her best result outside the mainland, winning 48 percent of the votes in New Caledonia and even beating Macron in Noumea.
A former politician of the Republicans and now Le Pen supporter Alain Descombels said New Caledonia would come up in the debate because of exploding unemployment and lack of money.
The Republicans, whose candidate Francois Fillon won the first round in 2017, lost support, with its candidate Valerie Pecresse securing less than six percent of the vote in New Caledonia.
In the five preceding presidential elections this century, the Republicans used to win five to eight times more votes than Pecresse did on Sunday.
Emmanual Macron Photo: AFP
Local politician Virginie Ruffenach noted that the candidate lacked certain qualities and wasn't enough of a political animal.
The party also said Pecresse was less known to voters because, unlike Macron and Le Pen, she had never visited New Caledonia.
The leader of the mainly Wallisian Pacific Awakening Party Milakulo Tukumuli said the demise of the traditional right represented by the Republicans could be worrying because the inverse was happening for the far right.
The pro-independence Caledonian Union advised its backers to keep abstaining.
Its president Daniel Goa said the first round of the election was an internal matter for France, with voters in New Caledonia barely recognising themselves in the French debates.
In French Polynesia, the camp supporting Le Pen was pleased to win nearly 20 percent of the votes.
In the second round, the head of the National Rally in Tahiti Eric Minardi said he was confident she would beat what he called the 'extreme centre', which is Macron.
The National Rally candidate secured support from the veteran politician Gaston Flosse, who in the first round backed Pecresse.
The move contrasts with the other parties, including President Edouard Fritch's Tapura Huiraatira, which now all endorse Macron.
Flosse, who wants French Polynesia to become independent in association with France, for decades supported the Republicans who oppose French Polynesia's decolonisation.
Moetai Brotherson of the pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira Party said he questioned why anyone seeking sovereignty would vote for Le Pen and her party as they would want sovereignty for France and not French Polynesia.
The Tavini leader Oscar Temaru advised voters to keep abstaining, saying the election on the other side of the globe didn't concern French Polynesia.
However, in 2017 he tried to run for the highest French office himself in what he said was an attempt to draw media attention to his decolonisation effort.
Brotherson said he feared a re-elected Macron would feel unrestrained.
He said Macron didn't want French Polynesia's emancipation but saw himself as a ruler of an empire where the sun never sets.
He added Macron knew that without its overseas possessions, France would just be a country like Belgium.
Moetai Brotherson Photo: AFP