The Secretary of State for Citizenship Sonia Backès, candidate for the senatorial elections in New Caledonia, was beaten in the second round by the separatist Robert Xowie, we learned on Sunday from the High Commission of the Republic in New Caledonia. -Caledonia.
Third in the first round in which the dissident candidate Les Républicains Georges Naturel was elected, Sonia Backès (Renaissance) did not manage to attract many electors in the second round, losing to the candidate of the Kanak Liberation Front ( FLNKS), which entered the Senate.
This is a first setback for the presidential party in these senatorial elections, while Ms. Backès was the only government representative to candidate during this election.
The Secretary of State denounced a “betrayal” in a statement published on her Facebook profile, affirming that Georges Naturel had been elected “thanks to the contribution of 233 independence votes” and that the latter’s support had then been “on the independence candidate to have him elected in the second round”.
“We will discover in the coming weeks the price of betrayal for the non-independence camp. In the meantime, our fight for the modification of the Constitution and the unfreezing of the electorate must continue more than ever wherever it can be carried out!” she reacts.
The president of the southern province of New Caledonia, who was seeking a first term, suffered a serious setback with the arrival of the separatists in the Senate, a few days after a meeting at the Elysée between loyalists and separatists with the hope of finding an agreement on the status of the archipelago by the end of the year with a view to a constitutional revision at the beginning of 2024.
In the archipelago, the two outgoing senators Pierre Frogier and Gérard Poadja were defeated.
The Senate is renewed by half on Sunday with an indirect vote in around forty overseas departments and territories.
09/24/2023 11:32:44 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
