Citizens in Indian ex-French colony cast votes

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French citizens of the tiny and picturesque former colony Pondicherry cast their presidential votes on Sunday, yet many have never been to the country nor speak its language.

Lying on India’s southeastern coast and a favourite with tourists for its colonial architecture, Pondicherry came under French rule in 1742, which it administered till 1954, seven years after India’s independence from Britain.

In 1962, India and France exchanged the instruments of ratification under which France ceded to India full sovereignty over the territories it held.

The treaty also offered the population of 70,000 to waive Indian nationality — and some 7,000 opted for France.

A majority of ‘Franco-Pondicherrians’ — the only French community abroad not formed out of expatriates and who represent some 70 percent of the 9,600 French living in India — have never been to France and only speak Tamil.

But few want to miss the presidential election, and as the four polling stations opened, queues of eager voters had already lined up outside under the blistering heat.

“I am a French citizen, I have the right and the duty to vote,” said Marie Jeanne d’Arc, wearing a bottle green sari and a nose ring, while police in red hats monitored the crowds.

Pondicherrians were allowed to chose their family name and some picked those of their heroes or writers such as Racine or Corneille. Others from more modest backgrounds took common words, such as the days of the week.

Some families became French in the 19th Century, after completing the ‘act of renunciation’ to Indian nationality.

“I came to vote to prove I am French,” said 96-year-old Srinivasan, wearing a white tunic and holding a black umbrella just before he headed off down Avenue Goubert on the seafront.

A strong French influence can still be felt in Pondicherry and other former French enclaves that have well-maintained colonial architecture as well as street signs and cobbled streets reminiscent of those days.

The city is the one-time capital of French India. In 2006 the federal territory changed its name to Puducherry to reflect the indigenous history of the region.

Jeanne d’Arc, 73, said in Tamil that she had voted for the socialist candidate Francois Hollande ‘because I want to see change’.

She held up a piece of paper on which a relative had written the name of the candidate in French alongside its equivalent in the local language, to avoid any mistakes.

Many Pondicherrians, some of whom belonged to the lowest Indian castes, do not know how to read or speak French, which turns the voting process into a sometimes complex operation.

“The law forbids speaking any language but French in the polling station,” explained Predibane Siva, a representative from the UMP, the party of the current president Nicolas Sarkozy, seeking a second term in office.

“But the heads of each station have agreed to explain to voters in Tamil that they can bring with them into the booths as many as ten voting cards.

“If we don’t (explain these rules) it would take two days to vote in Pondicherry!”

For 18-year-old Roopini Balasurbramanian this is her first experience voting in an election.

“I have never been to France, I don’t know much about its politics but I must vote for my country, it’s my duty,” the young woman said, whose long plait was decorated with jasmine flowers.

“My grandfather, who gets a French newspaper once a month, explained to me that I had the choice between two candidates: Nicolas or Francois,” Roopini said in English, without disclosing which of the two she voted for.

Prosper Emmanuel, a socialist representative, said voting in Pondicherry was not very sophisticated politically: “It’s either Sarkozy or Hollande”, there are no support committees for other candidates.

In 2007, Segolene Royal, then the socialist party candidate who lost to Sarkozy in the second round, had come top in Pondicherry by 53 votes.

Sunday’s first round will serve to whittle the field down from 10 candidates to two — in all likelihood Hollande and Sarkozy — and the frontrunners will face each other in a second-round run-off on May 6.