The candidate Renaissance did not manage to attract enough voters in the second round, losing to the independence candidate of the Kanak Liberation Front (FLNKS) Robert Xowie.
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A setback for the presidential majority. Sonia Backès, Secretary of State for Citizenship, was defeated in New Caledonia during the senatorial elections on Sunday September 24. Sonia Backès was the only government representative to present herself in this election.
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The Secretary of State came third in the first round, during which the dissident Les Républicains candidate Georges Naturel was elected. The candidate Renaissance did not manage to fill up with voters in the second round, losing to the independence candidate of the Kanak Liberation Front (FLNKS) Robert Xowie, who is entering the Senate.
Locally, this result is all the more symbolic as it comes in the middle of negotiations on the institutional future of New Caledonia, in which the Secretary of State is omnipresent.
“She lost big”
The contribution of independence votes allowed Georges Naturel, the current mayor of Dumbéa, to be elected in the first round with more than 60% of the votes. In the second round, it was the support of non-independence supporters which ensured the victory of Robert Xowie with 55% of the votes. This support from non-independence activists has been denounced as “treason” by Sonia Backès on social networks.
“Sonia Backès could win everything with this election and thus strengthen her dominant position, but in the end, she lost big”, analysis from AFP Pierre-Christophe Pantz, geographer and specialist in geopolitics in New Caledonia. The researcher also points out that “the election of Georges Naturel shows the emergence of a new trend, particularly in the non-independence camp. We know that there is a stirring, it remains to be seen how this will translate”.