Voters in New Caledonia will go to the polls this weekend under tight security, almost eight weeks after destructive and violent unrest broke out in the French Pacific archipelago.

They will vote for their two representatives in the 577-seat French National Assembly, which was dissolved by President Emmanuel Macron just before he — in a surprise move — called snap elections earlier this month.

The previous French general elections took place two years ago.

The first round of voting takes place tomorrow and the second one next Sunday, July 7.

Since early May, the unrest has caused nine direct fatalities and the closure, looting and vandalism of several hundred companies and homes. More than 3500 security forces have been dispatched, with the damage now estimated at 1.5 billion euros (NZ$2.64 billion).

Earlier this month, 86.5 percent of New Caledonian voters abstained during the European Parliament elections.

It is anticipated that for these elections, the participation rate could be high.

Both incumbents are on the pro-France (loyalist) side.

On the pro-independence side, internal divisions have resulted in only the hard-line party (part of the FLNKS umbrella, which also includes other moderate parties) managing to field their candidates.

He said all public meetings would be banned, on top of a dusk-to-dawn curfew and a ban on the sale and transport of firearms, ammunition and alcohol.

“There are 222,900 registered voters for the legislative elections; the voting habits in New Caledonia are that it happens mostly in the morning. So, the peak hours are between 9 am and noon,” Le Franc said.

He said during those peak hours, queues could be expected outside the polling stations, especially in the Greater Nouméa area (including the neighbouring towns of Païta, Dumbéa and Mont-Dore).

“Provision has been made to ensure that voters who go there are not bothered by collective or individual elements who would like to disrupt the exercise of this democratic right.”

Lennon’s ‘Give Peace a Chance’ in class
This week, more public buildings, including schools and fire stations, have been burnt to the ground, and several schools have closed in the wake of the violence.

However, in Dumbéa, Apogoti High School and 13 other schools partly reopened on Friday, with teachers focusing on workshops.

“We met with all the teachers and we decided to mix several subjects,” music teacher Nicolas Le Yannou told public broadcaster NC la 1ère TV.

“We chose a song from John Lennon (‘Give Peace a Chance’) which calls for peace and then we translated the lyrics into Spanish, French and the local Drehu language.

“That allowed everyone to express themselves without having to brood over the difficult situation we have gone through. For us, music was our way to escape,” Le Yannou said.

Psychological assistance and counselling were also provided to students and teachers when required.

On Thursday, a new fire station under construction near Nouméa-La Tontouta Airport, which was scheduled to be opened later this year, was burnt down.

Pro-independence leader’s house destroyed
The home of one moderate pro-independence leader, Victor Tutugoro (president of the Union Progressiste en Mélanésie, PALIKA), was burnt down by rioters on Wednesday morning.

This prompted condemnation from Le France and New Caledonia’s local government, as well as from the president of New Caledonia’s Northern Province, Paul Néaoutyine.

Néaoutyine, who belongs to the Kanak Liberation Party, said several other politicians from the moderate fringe of FLNKS had also been targeted and threatened over the past few weeks.

PALIKA’s political bureau also condemned the attacks and destruction of Tutugoro’s residence.

PALIKA spokesman Charles Washetine called for calm and for all remaining roadblocks to be lifted.

“The right to vote is the fruit of a painful common history which commands us to fight for independence through the ballots and through the belief in intelligence which we have all inherited,” the party said.

The elections coincide with the 36th anniversary of the signing of the Matignon-Oudinot Accord between Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Jacques Lafleur, who were the leaders, respectively, of the pro-independence FLNKS and pro-France RPCR parties.

This year, there was no official commemoration ceremony.

After intense talks with then French Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard, they both shook hands on 26 June 1988 to mark the end of half a decade of quasi-civil war in New Caledonia.

One year later, Tjibaou and his deputy, Yéwéné Yéwéné, were gunned down by a member of the radical fringe of the pro-independence movement.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The leaders of five Melanesian nations have agreed to write to French President Emmanuel Macron “expressing their strong opposition” to the results of the third New Caledonia referendum.

In December 2021, more than 96 percent of people voted against full sovereignty, but the pro-independence movement FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) has refused to recognise the result because of a boycott by the Kanak population over the impact of the covid pandemic on the referendum campaign.

Since then, the FLNKS has been seeking international support for its view that the referendum result was not a legitimate outcome.

The Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders — Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the FLNKS — met in Port Vila last week for the 22nd edition of the Leader’s Summit, where they said “the MSG does not recognise the results of the third referendum on the basis of the PIF’s Observer Report”.

FLNKS spokesperson Victor Tutugoro told RNZ Pacific the pro-independence group had continued to protest against the outcome of the December 2021 referendum.

“We contest the referendum because it was held during the circumstances that was not healthy for us. For example, we went through covid, we lost many members of our families [because of the pandemic],” Tutugoro said.

“We will continue to protest at the ICJ (International Court of Justice) level and at the national level. We expect the MSG to help us fight to get the United Nations to debate the cause of the Kanaks.”

The leaders have agreed that “New Caledonia’s inclusion on the UN List of decolonisation territories is protected and maintained”.

The MSG leaders have also directed the UN permanent representative to “examine and provide advice” so they can seek an opinion from the ICJ “on the results of the third referendum conducted in December 2021”.

They have also requested that the UN provide a report on the “credibility of the election process, and mandated the MSG UN permanent representatives, working with the MSG Secretariat and the FLNKS, “to pursue options on the legality of the 3rd referendum”.

Support for West Papua
New Caledonia’s pro-independence FLNKS movement also said it would continue to back the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) to become a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

Tutugoro told the 22nd MSG Leader’s Summit in Port Vila that FLNKS had always supported West Papua’s move to join the MSG family.

He said by becoming a full member of the sub-regional group, FLNKS was able to benefit from international support to counterbalance the weight of France in its struggle for self-determination.

He said the FLNKS hoped the ULMWP would have the same opportunity and in time it could be included on the UN’s list of non-self-governing territories.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

France has been warned against attempts to abandon the New Caledonian decolonisation process pursued for more than two decades.

A veteran independence campaigner, Victor Tutugoro, made the warning on the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Noumea Accord, which has been the roadmap guiding the gradual and irreversible transfer of power from France to New Caledonia.

As one of the signatories, Tutugoro told the news site Outremers360 that “the process of decolonisation must continue. It was thought to bring back calm and serenity, it should not be thrown away today”.

“Rewriting a blank page, wiping everything off the table is dangerous, it’s leading the country to disaster,” he said.

After the violence in the 1980s, the accord between the pro- and anti-independence parties as well as the French state firmed up the consensus for a peaceful approach to the Kanaks’ claim for self-determination.

The proposed 20-year emancipation process of the accord concluded with three referendums between 2018 and 2021 and resulted in three rejections of full sovereignty — two of them very narrowly.

Not legitimate
However, the third and last vote in 2021 is not being accepted by the Kanaks as the legitimate outcome of the decolonisation process.

With the Kanak population being hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic, the pro-independence parties lobbied France to postpone the plebiscite but Paris refused, which prompted a boycott of the vote.

More than 96 percent voted against independence but less than half of the electorate voted.

Few Kanaks voted and as the president of New Caledonia’s Congress and signatory to the Noumea Accord, Roch Wamtyan, noted, the vote missed the point because it should have been about the Kanak people, colonised since 1853.

“It’s a travesty. It’s not a referendum that concerns the Kanak people,” he said.

The anti-independence parties hailed the referendum victory and French President Emmanuel Macron also welcomed the result, saying “France was more beautiful because New Caledonia decided to remain part of it”.

Macron said a new common project had to be built while recognising and respecting the dignity of everyone.

The accord stipulates that in the case of three “no” votes, the political partners would meet to examine the situation which had arisen.

Murky way forward
The way forward is murky as the two sides hold incompatible positions.

There is disagreement over whether the process has come to its conclusion and there is disagreement over whether the Noumea Accord provisions now enshrined in the French constitution are irreversible.

As Noumea law professor Mathias Chauchat noted last year, “there is a contradiction between the lapsing and irreversibility of the Noumea Accord. The two concepts cannot be made to coexist”.

“Either the accord is void or it is irreversible,” he added.

Tutugoro said the accord provisions must continue to be implemented.

He said the rebalancing within the territory as outlined in the accord was not complete, citing the Northern Province where he said one cannot do in 30 years what had not been done in more than 100 years.

“It should be the Kanaks, and those to whom we have given the right to decolonisation [other New Caledonian communities] to run the country today. But we are still far from it. Many decisions are made in ministerial circles or in inaccessible settings,” he said.

He went on to say that it was a mistake “to have trusted certain signatories. The accord is what it is today because some did not keep to their word. And here, the word is sacred,” he said.

Will Paris alter the provincial roll?
A contentious issue emanating from the Noumea Accord is the make-up of the roll used in provincial elections, which choose the provincial assemblies that in turn make up the Congress.

At the insistence of the pro-independence parties, it was agreed that in order to be eligible to vote, an individual must be either an indigenous Kanak or a resident since 1998.

This provision was meant to set the parameters for New Caledonian citizenship.

The anti-independence parties said given the referendum outcome, New Caledonia needed to be realigned with France and the restrictions eased.

They said the restricted roll had become untenable and want France to open it for next year’s elections.

About 40,000 French citizens are excluded from provincial elections but can take part in France’s parliamentary and presidential elections.

A leading anti-independence politician and president of New Caledonia’s Southern Province, Sonia Backes, said she would quit her position in the French government if it failed to open up New Caledonia’s electoral rolls.

Citizens have same rights
An organisation of French citizens without full voting rights in New Caledonia pointed out a basic principle of the French republic was that all citizens had the same rights.

Cognisant of the possible implications of the Noumea Accord, the French government noted that “a lasting registration of a restricted and fixed electorate would raise difficulties with regard to France’s international commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and under the European Convention on Human Rights”.

Two months ago, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the 2024 provincial elections would not be able to go ahead with the 1998.

However, he has yet to announce what change his government plans and how it would be implemented.

The pro-independence parties, united under the FLNKS umbrella, keep objecting to any suggestion for change.

Its delegate at the UN Decolonisation Committee, Dimitri Qenegei, said last year that France’s intention to open up the electoral rolls was the ultimate weapon to “drown” the Kanak people and “recolonise” New Caledonia.

The Kanaks, he said, would be made to disappear and that would not be accepted, inevitably lead to conflict.

‘Mother of all battles’
The Caledonian Union’s Gilbert Tyuienon told New Caledonia’s La Premiere television at the weekend that getting the restricted roll was “the mother of all battles” for the Kanaks in the process of attaining the 1998 Noumea Accord.

Last month, the union’s president, Daniel Goa, warned that if France changed the roll for provincial elections, there would be a risk of there never being any election.

He added that the survival of the Kanaks hinged on the issue.

In response, the anti-independence coalition, led by Backes, lodged a complaint with the French prosecutor for alleged incitement to violence and sedition.

In defending Goa, Tyuienon said he simply stated what the party membership thought.

He warned that dialogue [with France] would be suspended if Goa was taken to court.

Since the disputed 2021 referendum, the Caledonian Union keeps insisting that any discussion has to be a bilateral one between the coloniser and the colonised people.

Sovereignty timetable
It insists on a timetable to be presented for the restoration of sovereignty taken in 1853.

Only then, it said, would it be prepared to enter into trilateral talks which included the anti-independence parties.

In the week after the 2021 referendum, Paris presented a timetable for the post-referendum process which was meant to culminate in a new referendum on a new statute for the territory in June this year.

The pro-independence parties, however, deprived the French plan of its momentum.

Only last month saw the pro-independence parties accept top level contact with the French government for the first time since the 2021 vote.

There was no tangible progress towards any new statute but agreement to continue talks in June when the French interior minister Darmanin is due back in Noumea for a second time in three months.

The provincial elections are scheduled for May next year, but it is uncertain what the roll will look like.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) of Kanaky New Caledonia has congratulated Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and his three deputies on their election in Parliament last month.

In a statement, FLNKS’s Victor Tutugoro also congratulated the 55 Members of Parliament and the newly-constituted government.

The liberation front also congratulated Speaker Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu and deputy Speaker Lenora Qereqeretabua.

“FLNKS looks forward to continuing to work closely with government in the future,” Tutugoro said.

“Our political, cultural and historical ties will continue within our great Melanesian family.

“FLNKS is ready to pursue our exchanges through the Melanesian Spearhead Group in the coming weeks.”

Tutugoro also acknowledged former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama for his “strong support” to the FLNKS cause.

Tutugoro is second vice-president of New Caledonia’s Northern provincial government and a member of the territory’s Congress.

Timoci Vula is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz