11 Jun 2007

Veteran New Caledonian politician loses French Assembly seat

10:38 am on 11 June 2007

New Caledonia's veteran politician, Jacques Lafleur, has failed to retain his seat in the French assembly.

In the first round of the assembly election, Mr Lafleur was beaten by the candidate of the UMP-backed Rassemblement-UMP and the pro-independence, FLNKS movement.

Through to the second round are Gael Yanno and Pierre Frogier for the Rassemblement and Charles Pidjot and Charles Washetine from the FLNKS.

The candidates of the ruling The Future Together Party all failed to win enough support to make it to the second round of voting next weekend.

In Wallis and Futuna, the candidates of the UMP and the Socialist Party, including the incumbent Victor Brial, are through to the run-off poll.

Voters in French Polynesia went to the polls a week earlier for the first round and also chose UMP-backed candidates and pro-independence politicians for the run-off.