UNDERSTANDING EVERYTHING – Referendum in New Caledonia: the challenges of this 3rd vote on independence – BFMTV

The inhabitants of New Caledonia are called this Sunday to the polls, to vote, for the third time, for or against the independence of their territory vis-à-vis France.

“Do you want New Caledonia to gain full sovereignty and become independent?” This Sunday is organized in New Caledonia the third referendum on the self-determination of this overseas collectivity. If the “yes” wins, New Caledonia will become an independent territory. If it is the “no”, she will remain French.

• What is the status of New Caledonia today?

New Caledonia is an archipelago located nearly 17,000 km from France, with a size of 18,575 km2, or twice the Dordogne department. It includes Grande Terre (400 km long and 50 km wide) as well as the four Loyalty Islands: Ouvéa, Lifou, Tiga and Maré, but also “the archipelago of the Belep Islands, the Isle of Pines and some distant islets. “, specifies the Ministry of Overseas. Its population is 271,000 inhabitants.

This territory is an overseas collectivity (COM) with a particular status, resulting from the Matignon-Oudinot agreements in 1988. It is particularly independent and manages certain competences such as that of Health, although the French State sometimes intervenes. through investments.

Its institutions are: Congress, government, Customary Senate, Economic, Social and Environmental Council and customary councils. On the spot, the French State is represented by the High Commissioner of the Republic.

• Why a referendum on independence?

Caledonians have been engaged in this process since the 1980s when New Caledonia experienced a period of unrest that culminated in the hostage-taking and the assault on Ouvéa cave in May 1988, during which 19 activists kanak and six soldiers were killed.

Less than two months after this tragedy, separatists and loyalists succeeded in concluding the Matignon agreements, which revised the distribution of powers in New Caledonia. Ten years later, the signing of the Noumea Accord established a 20-year decolonization process for this French overseas collectivity.

This agreement “continues the revalorization of Kanak culture (customary status, languages, etc.), creates new institutions and provides for a process of gradual and irreversible transfer of powers to New Caledonia, pending a referendum. ‘self-determination postponed to 2018 at the latest “, explains the official website Public life.

The Nouméa agreement notably provides for the organization of referendums on the archipelago’s self-determination. A third ballot was scheduled in the event of two successive “no” victories, which happened in 2018 and 2020.

The two previous referendums organized as part of the Noumea Accord in 2018 and 2020 had been won by the loyalist camp, but with a score down from 56.7% with 53.3% of votes for the no to independence. Abstention was 18.99% in 2018, and 14.3% in 2020.

• Who can vote?

Sunday’s poll will be open at 8 a.m. local time and close the same day at 6 p.m. underlines Public Life, always with the same question asked to voters:

“Do you want New Caledonia to gain full sovereignty and become independent?”

To be able to take part in the vote, one must be registered “on the special electoral list for consultation”, which is therefore different from the traditional electoral list. According to New Caledonia The 1st, 183,631 people are registered on this list.

Voters must fulfill at least one of the eight pre-defined conditions, such as “to have been admitted to participate in the consultation of November 8, 1998”, “to have had customary civil status or, born in New Caledonia, to have had the center of his material and moral interests” or even “to have the ‘one of his parents born in New Caledonia and having the center of his material and moral interests there “.

These specific rules were put in place in the Nouméa agreement to “limit the right to vote of residents recently installed, in order to contain the ‘settlement colonization’ denounced by the separatists,” explains Vie Publique. They are criticized by part of the population because they prevent certain inhabitants of the island from going to vote.

“The peculiarity compared to previous referendums is that this year there are political parties, in this case the independence parties, which called for ‘non-participation’ while during the last referendums all the parties called for participation, “State Councilor Francis Lamy, chairman of the committee to oversee the organization and conduct of the consultation, told AFP.

The separatists had demanded the postponement of the poll because of the impossibility of “carrying out a fair campaign” because of the Covid-19 epidemic, which was refused by the government.

The Customary Senate, an institution that embodies traditional Kanak power, asked him “to Kanak citizens and Caledonian progressives to observe a national day of ‘Kanak mourning’ (for the deaths of Covid-19) on December 12, 2021 by not going to the polling stations “.

Its president, Yvon Kona, also launched an “appeal for calm, so that there is no disturbance: everyone is free to exercise their right to vote, no one will be prevented from voting”.

For its part, the non-independence camp tried to convince its voters to come to the polls, but some leaders fear “participation in free fall”. The loyalist coalition “Voices of the No” launched a massive call for a vote not to “let the result be stolen”, recalling “that an election is never decided in advance”.

• What will happen if the “yes” is won?

The “yes” to the Referendum will have to be followed by a law in the French Parliament declaring the “full and entire sovereignty of New Caledonia”, explains the French overseas ministry. Independence will then result in “the transfer to New Caledonia of sovereign powers, access to an international status of full responsibility and the organization of citizenship into nationality”.

“New Caledonia will therefore become a fully sovereign state,” he explained. “French law will no longer apply to it; the institutions of the Republic will no longer have a legal basis to act on the territory of the new State”.

This means that New Caledonia will no longer be French, and will be able to decide everything on the subjects which concern it. But it will also have to renegotiate agreements to which it is now part because of its membership in France, such as those of the European Union. Questions of currency, international trade or the departure of certain French officials would also be on the table. Everything will have to be rethought.

This will obviously not happen on the morning of December 13th. In June in Paris, the Caledonian actors had decided with the State that after December 12 would open “a period of stability and convergence” before a “project referendum” by June 2023, which, in the event of yes Sunday, would relate to the constitution of the new state.

• And in case of victory of the “no”?

The “no” should also bring changes – although less important – because this third referendum also marks the end of the Nouméa agreements, the provisions of which were temporary.

“The choice to remain in France and the end of the Noumea agreement do not in themselves constitute the consecration of the current status quo”, specifies the document from the Ministry of Overseas Territories. “In any event, the transitory nature of the current provisions will imply revising the Constitution to redefine the place of New Caledonia in the institutional architecture of the Republic”.

As in the event of a “yes” victory, a “project referendum” is scheduled for June 2023, which in this case would relate to a new status for New Caledonia in the Republic.