Tenth constituency for French residents overseas

10th constituency for French residents overseas

French National Assembly constituency
Deputy	none yet -
Department	none (overseas residents)
Canton	none
Voters	140,310

The Tenth constituency for French residents overseas (dixième circonscription des Français établis hors de France) is one of eleven constituencies each electing one representative of French citizens overseas to the French National Assembly.

Area

In terms of area, it is one of the largest of the eleven constituencies, although the number of registered French citizens it contains is equivalent to that of the other constituencies. It covers all French citizens living in the following forty-eight countries of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, and of the Middle East: Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It does not include the overseas departments of Mayotte and Réunion, which are part of France and have their own constituencies.^[1]

As of New Year's Day 2011, the Tenth constituency contained 140,310 registered French voters - of which 19,725 in Lebanon and 19,930 in Madagascar, the two countries in the region with the greatest number of registered French residents.^[2][3]

This constituency will elect its first ever representative at the 2012 French legislative election.

Deputies

Election		Member	Party
	2012	to be determined	-

Election results

2012

Candidates

The list of candidates was officially finalised on 14 May. These are the nineteen candidates:^[4][5]

The Socialist Party has chosen Jean-Daniel Chaoui, a resident of Antananarivo, as its candidate. His deputy (suppléante) is Rita Maalouf, a resident of Beirut.^[6]

The Union for a Popular Movement has chosen Alain Marsaud, a former judge.^[7] While he is established in France, his deputy (suppléante), Fabienne Blineau-Abiramia, is a resident of Beirut.^[8]

The Left Front has chosen Axelle Brémont-Bellini, a student of Egyptology and anthropology in Cairo. She is a member of the French Communist Youth Movement, and fluent speaker of Arabic. Regarding the specifics of the constituency, she advocates the teaching of local languages in French expatriate schools, and "a transparent foreign policy respectful of the values of the Republic, with an end to Françafrique, and for a socially and environmentally sustainable development". Her deputy (suppléant) is Daniel Feurtet.^[9]

Europe Écologie–The Greens has chosen Lucien Bruneau, a resident of Addis-Abeba, with Agnès Joignerez as his deputy (suppléante).^[10][11]

The National Front has chosen Francis Maginot, a telecommunications engineer, with Jad Ghantous as his deputy.^[5]

The Radical Party (centre-right) and the Republican, Ecologist and Social Alliance (centrist) have jointly chosen François Kahn as their candidate. He runs several companies which provide medical equipment for hospitals and clinics in Africa and the Middle East. His deputy is Ali Liaquat.^[12]

The Radical Party of the Left (centre-left) has chosen Saliha Ayadi, who has dual French and Algerian citizenship. Her deputy is Adrien Houabaloukou.^[5]

Solidarity and Progress, the French branch of the LaRouche movement, is represented by Pierre Bonnefoy, with Eric Mercier as his deputy.^[5]

Guy Makki, a member of the Union for a Popular Movement who did not obtain the endorsement of the party, is standing as an independent. A resident of Dubai, he works for BNP Paribas. His deputy is Marie Ferlay.^[13]

Patricia Elias Smida, a lawyer who lives and works in both Lebanon and Gabon, is standing as an independent candidate. She is a dissident member of the UMP. Her deputy is Xavier du Bourg de la Tour.^[14][15]

Marcel Misslin de Robillard, a resident of Mauritius, is standing as an independent candidate. His deputy is Danielle Audineau-Herauld.^[16]

François Bridon, who is of French and Cameroonian descent and works as a farmer in Cameroon, is standing as an independent candidate. He has also lived in Gabon and Côte d'Ivoire. His deputy is Nina Tamic.^[17]

Jean-Pierre Pont, a journalist, is another independent candidate. His deputy is Mirna Khalifé.^[18]

The other independent candidates are: Bertrand Langlade (with Roger Teuron as deputy); Louis Perriere (with Jean-Marie Pierret); José Garson (with Bernard Boumba); Boudjema Naidji (with Malika Naidji); Adeline Kargue (with Andréas Loebell); and Habib Abi Yaghi Deguy (with Nadine Honeika).^[5]

Results

As in the other expatriate constituencies, turnout in the first round was low. Only in Botswana did over half (55.9%) of registered French citizens vote. Turnout was also comparatively high in Burundi (43.9%), Rwanda (42.7%) and Oman (42.1%). By contrast, turnout was a staggeringly low 0.6% in Syria, where only 9 people voted, out of the 1,542 French residents registered there in late 2010. Syria at the time of the election was undergoing violent internal conflict, and it is likely that many French residents had left the country. In Yemen, which had just experienced a revolution, turnout was also very low (9.1%), suggesting that some French residents had left the country prior to the election. Turnout was also notably low in the Comoros (6.7%), Egypt, where there had been a revolution in 2011 (18.3%), and South Africa (18.8%). In newly established South Sudan, where a polling station was set up in Juba, eight of the twenty-two registered French citizens voted (36.4%).^[15][19]

This is one of only three expatriate constituencies in which the main candidate of the right finished first in the first round. Independent right-wing candidate Patricia Elias Smida also did well, obtaining more than 10% of the vote and finishing third.^[15][19]

Independent candidate Louis Perrière obtained just two votes - one cast in Benin, the other in South Africa.^[19]

Legislative Election 2012: Overseas residents 10 - 2nd round
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UMP	Alain Marsaud			-
	PS	Jean-Daniel Chaoui			-
Turnout
	[[|N/A]] win (new seat)

Legislative Election 2012: Overseas residents 10[19]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UMP	Alain Marsaud	6 749	32.13	-
	PS	Jean-Daniel Chaoui	6 060	28.85	-
	Miscellaneous right	Patricia Elias Smida	2 250	10.71	-
	EELV	Lucien Bruneau	1 388	6.61	-
	FN	Francis Maginot	1 329	6.33	-
	Radical	François Kahn	941	4.48	-
	Miscellaneous right	Guy Makki	567	2.70	-
	FG	Axelle Brémont-Bellini	504	2.40	-
	Independent	Jean-Pierre Pont	467	2.22	-
	Independent	Habib Abi Yaghi Deguy	198	0.94	-
	PRG	Saliha Ayadi	177	0.84	-
	Independent	Marcel Misslin de Robillard	155	0.74	-
	Solidarity and Progress	Pierre Bonnefoy	75	0.36	-
	Independent	José Garson	64	0.30	-
	Independent	Adeline Kargue	55	0.26	-
	Independent	Bertrand Langlade	10	0.05	-
	Independent	Boudjema Naidji	8	0.04	-
	Independent	François Bridon	6	0.03	-
	Independent	Louis Perriere	2	0.01	-
Turnout			14 059	15.35	n/a

References

Constituencies for French residents overseas First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth Ninth Tenth Eleventh