Polls close in New Caledonia just as mainland France opens its voting stations, showing a very low turnout rate in the overseas territories.
While the majority of French citizens will go to the polls today, Sunday 9 June, there is a small percentage of territories that already opened voting stations overseas such as Guyane, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
In all these regions, the participation barely surpasses 10%, far from the 50% turnout France saw in the past European elections in 2019.
At 17h, when the stations closed, the participation in Guyane was 10.8%, 0.6 points higher than the last time, an exception from all the other territories where it has dropped.
In Guadeloupe, the turnout at the closing of the polls was 10.87%, and in Martinique, registering the lowest numbers, participation was 7.95%.
An exception to these low figures is Saint-Pierre et Miquelon in which 18.85% of the voters went to the polls. While this number is higher than in other territories, the island registers a 6% drop from 2019.
The last polling stations to open before the ones in mainland France are in New Caledonia, a territory that has experienced big instability in the past month.
After the French government in Paris passed a bill amending the constitutions to make changes to voter lists in New Caledonia, tensions erupted in the region.
The 222 831 voters called to the polls on the island are asked to respect the travel restrictions that are currently in force, with a curfew in place until 17 June which brings forward the closing of polls to 17.00 local time.
The latest turnout data from midday in the region shows the participation in 8.81%.