As many as 80 French nationals residing in Union Enclave Yanam have exercised their vote in the ongoing elections to the European Union. They have gone all the way to Puducherry from Yanam town to cast their vote at the Consulate on Sunday. Of the 571 MEPs (Member of European Parliament) in the European Union, France has its share of 79 seats and the government has taken up campaign to sensitize the voters to cast their vote without fail.
The French government deputed a special officer to Yanam last week to meet the voters and give them the details of election procedure. Interestingly, none of the contesting candidates undertake the poll campaign. They, however, released their manifestoes and distributed it to all the voters in the electronic and print formats.
Besides the 80 nationals residing in Yanam, there are 5,500 French nationals in Pondicherry, for whom two special polling stations were arranged at the French Consulate. The government has also extended the proxy vote facility to the voters. Yanam was under the French rule from 1723 to 1954 and the voters here were participating in the EU elections ever since its formation in 1979.
