The face-to-face is announced: Patrice Thien-Ah-Koon and Nathalie Bassire are the two candidates selected for the second round of the legislative elections.

They were 13 in the running for the ballot which was held this Sunday, June 12.
Of the 675,000 voters in Reunion, 96,175 were called upon to elect the MP for the island’s 3rd constituency.

The results

Patrice Thien-Ah-Koon and Nathalie Bassire are leading the first round of these legislative elections in this 3rd constituency. Out of 31,938 ballots cast, 6,351 are in favor of Patrice Thien-Ah-Koon, or 21.68% of the vote.

51 votes nevertheless separate Nathalie Bassire (16.74%) and the candidate who came third in the ballot box, Alexis Chaussalet. The outgoing MP won 4,904 votes, against 4,853 for Alexis Chaussalet.

LEGI CIRCO 3 tour 2
Infogram

LEGI CIRCO 3
Infogram

The reactions

Since his tenure at Le Tampon, Patrice Thien-Ah-Koon confides that he ” anticipated the second round and even abstention “.

I had anticipated the second round because I knew we were going to have a high abstention rate. (…) I am not surprised: this is a trend that we observed in previous elections and it is only confirmed today.

Patrice Thien Ah Koon

Nathalie Bassire believes that her arrival in the second round is proof that there is “a base of voters convinced” by her policy.

There was a wide choice with 13 candidates. Everyone makes their choice. In the first round we choose, in the second round, we eliminate.

Nathalie Bassire

13 candidates

In this 3rd constituency, the outgoing MP is Nathalie Bassire, also a municipal councilor in Le Tampon.

For this election, the candidates are as follows: Aurélie Vigne (COM), Rémy Bourgogne (FI), Raphaël Dijoux (ECO), Bachil Valy (ENS), Sandrine Moukine (DSV), Didier Hoareau (RN), Nathalie Bassire (DVD ), Antoine Fontaine (DVG), Yves Thebault (DXG), Didier Techer (DVC), Alexis Chaussalet (FI), Patrice Thien-Ah-Koon (DVD), Jean-Jacques Vlody (SOC).

Rate of participation

For these 2022 legislative elections, 30.44% of those registered in this 3rd constituency voted. As a reminder, the overall participation rate in the department is 28.49%.

In 2017, 37.89% of voters went to the polls in the first round of the previous legislative elections. This is more than in the entire department, where the average participation rate was then 31.72%.

The 3rd constituency in a few figures

The 3rd constituency includes the communes of Le Tampon, Cilaos, Entre-Deux and part of Saint-Louis: La Rivière. It is the only one of the island’s seven constituencies that do not have a coastline. It is made up of territories located in the Hauts du Sud of the island.

It is the most agricultural of all the districts and is the breadbasket of our island with more than 1,300 farms, all sectors combined.

These professionals say they are worried about their retirement. Some young farmers are starting, but face difficulties in setting up due to problems with agricultural land. Reunion has 15,000 agricultural retirees, more than 7,000 of whom receive less than 400 euros per month.

More than 119,000 inhabitants populate this 3rd district and among them, 96,040 are registered on the electoral lists. According to INSEE data, the population there is relatively young with an average age of 36 years.

In 2019, 40% of the inhabitants lived below the poverty line. 45.7% of this population say they have a job or are looking for one, which is about the same percentage as in France.

These assets are mostly employees or workers. 83.2% of these workers use a car to get to work, and less than 5% take public transport. Among young people in the 3rd constituency, 25% are under 16 years old. All have access to schools and colleges, 90% too high schools.