Chirac: a favourite

favourite in the Pacific

By David North

The French islands in the Pacific voted for the con servative candidate for President of France, Jacques Chirac, by a larger margin than the French did world-wide.

All three of the Pacific entities (New Caledonia, Tahiti and Wallis and Futuna) cast strong conservative votes, and were thus in harmony with French voters generally. In con trast, in November 1994 the American islands (Samoa, Guam and the State of Hawaii) cast thun derous Democratic votes while the Congress as a whole was going heavily Republican.

Chirac, long-time Mayor of Paris and one-time Prime Minister, defeat ed Lionel Jospin, the Socialist, in the second round voting early May. It was Chirac’s third attempt to win the post. He got about 52 per cent of the vote world-wide.

Chirac’s best vote in the Pacific came from New Caledonia, where he got 74 per cent of the votes; a big victory, but not quite the 90 per cent he received seven years earlier when the island was in an uproar over independence efforts.

Lightly-populated Wallis and Futuna gave Chirac 55 per cent of the vote, a modest margin consider ing that often this island group casts the most conservative votes in the French system.

In Tahiti 61 per cent of the votes cast their ballots for Chirac.

Chirac had led the polls in each of the three jurisdictions in the first round secured a majority, a second election among the two first-round leaders was needed. ■