Former French prime minister Francois Fillon. Photo: AFP
Preliminary results from the French Pacific show voters have given little support to Francois Fillon who won the first round of the primaries of The Republicans for next year's French presidential elections.
Mr Fillon, who is a former prime minister, will contest next weekend's run-off against another former prime minister, Alain Juppe.
In French Polynesia, Mr Juppe won 48 percent while Mr Fillon won just five percent.
In New Caledonia, the most popular candidate was a former president Nicolas Sarkozy with 38 percent, followed by Mr Fillon on 30 percent.
With his anti-independence stance, Mr Sarkozy has been hugely popular in New Caledonia where he scored big wins in the 2007 and the 2012 presidential elections.
Turnout in the primaries was six percent of eligible voters in French Polynesia and five percent in New Caledonia.
French Polynesia's pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru also wants to run in the French election but he is yet to secure enough backers France-wide to lodge his candidacy