The president’s party, Edouard Fritch, comes first in two of the three constituencies of the ultramarine island.
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The Polynesian President’s party, Edouard Fritch, supported by the Alliance Ensemble! of the President of the Republic, dominated, on Saturday June 4, the first round of the ballot, marked by very strong abstention, which reaches scores of 50 % to more than 60 % depending on the constituencies. His three candidates will be opposed to an independence in the second round, themselves close to the new Ecological and Social People’s People’s Union (Nuts, Left Coalition led by Insoumise France).
Like the French from abroad, the Polynesians voted with a week in advance on France and the others overseas, to allow the delivery of electoral material in the isolated islands between the two towers. The second will take place on June 18, in this ultramarine community of antipodes which has twelve hours of jet lag with Paris.
The left-right divide and the hexagonal parties have a very relative existence in Polynesian political life: for four decades, it has been concentrated around the opposition between autonomy (skills shared between the French State and the local government ) and independence … even when twenty-seven candidates present themselves to the election, as during this first round.
Figure of local autonomy, several times Minister of Tourism and Labor, Nicole Boutteau is a favorite part in the 1
The outcome is more uncertain in the 2 e constituency: another separatist, Steve Chailloux (28.78 %), jostled the hegemony of Tapura Huiraatira, the party of Edouard Fritch . The latter’s candidate, Tepuaraurii Teriitahi, wins the first round (33.21 %), but can fear an alliance of oppositions.
In the 3
no triangular
Neither the emerging parties nor the former president of Polynesia, Gaston Flosse, ineligible but still party leader, therefore managed to qualify a candidate for the second round. At 90 years old, Mr. Flosse remains combative in front of his ex-gender and former vice-president, Mr. Fritch, who has become his best enemy, but the defeats are linked.
The low participation has not allowed any triangular, which would have favored the majority. Independentists can hope for at least one seat by federating opposition to the government of Mr. Fritch. His management of the COVVI-19 crisis was widely criticized. He was even sentenced the day before the election, for ensuring the musical animation of the marriage of one of his ministers in front of several hundred guests, ten months earlier, in the midst of an epidemic, a few days after announcing measures Prohibiting this type of festivities. This minister, also condemned, is still in government.
m. Fritch, however, retains a majority in the assembly of French Polynesia and largely won the first round in number of votes. He therefore leaves with an advantage for the most important elections in the community: the territorials of 2023.