Referendum on independence in New Caledonia: low turnout at midday – archyde

The 307 polling stations in New Caledonia, French territory in the Pacific located some 18,000 kilometers from the metropolis, opened Sunday, December 12 at 7 a.m. local time (9 p.m. Saturday in Paris) on the occasion of a third referendum for or against self-determination of the island. Voters have until 7 p.m. (9 a.m. in Paris) to say whether they want New Caledonia “Access full sovereignty and become independent”.

The participation rate stood at 5 p.m. at 41.60%, according to the High Commission, a very sharp drop compared to the two previous referendums, a consequence of the call to shun the independence vote. At the first consultation, attendance at 5 p.m. was 73.68%. It was 79.63% in 2020.

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The separatists have, in fact, announced thatthey would not go to the polls, citing the impossibility of organizing “A fair campaign”, while the archipelago has been affected since September by the Covid-19 epidemic. This boycott should encourage the “no” to independence.

The President of the Customary Senate, Yvon Kona, launched a “Call for calm”, Thursday, while asking “To Kanak citizens and Caledonian progressives to observe a national day of “Kanak mourning” December 12, 2021 by not going to the polling stations ”.

UN observers

As of Sunday morning, 184,332 people were registered on the Special Voters List for Consultation (LESC), and although the island is on precyclonic alert, polling stations have opened under bright sunshine.

“The polling stations all opened their doors this morning, and the electoral operations are being held there without any incident having been reported at this stage”, assured the High Commission in a press release on Sunday morning. However, he pointed out “An attempted roadblock on an axis of the Isle of Pines”, which required the intervention of the gendarmes, without giving more details.

The authorities have deployed an important safety device, 2,000 gendarmes, police and soldiers on the island, visible even before the referendum in and around Noumea. “For us, it’s a normal day. We do not understand this deployment of police and military forces when nothing is happening. For us, it is provocation. It’s rubbish, it looks like there is war ”, told the France-Presse agency (AFP) young people from the city of Montravel, in the north of Nouméa, sitting away from the polling station and who say they are more concerned by the pre-cyclonic alert declared on Sunday morning than by ballot.

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The ballot took place under the surveillance of observers from the United Nations (UN) and the Melanesian spearhead group, as well as a delegate from the control commission. New Caledonia has been included since 1986 on the UN list of non-self-governing territories to be decolonized.

The outcome of the Matignon accords

A mission of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), led by Roch Wamytan, signatory of the Nouméa accord, historical figure of the Kanak struggle and president of Congress, visited New York this week to meet with the C24, the UN Special Committee on Decolonization. He informed him of the situation in New Caledonia and of the non-participation in the vote of December 12 of the FLNKS.

For her part, loyalist Sonia Backès, leader of the Caledonian Republicans, said Thursday in a statement that she had asked the C24 to organize “A videoconference (…) mirroring the approach taken by the separatists present in New York ”.

This process of self-determination began at the end of the 1980s. New Caledonia had experienced a period of unrest, the culmination of which was the assault on Ouvéa cave following a hostage-taking, in May 1988, in which 19 Kanak militants and six soldiers were killed.

Less than two months after this tragedy, separatists and loyalists concluded the Matignon agreements, which reviewed 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 provided for a succession of three referendums to ask the inhabitants if they wanted the island to gain independence. The “no” won in the two previous elections, with 56.7% of the vote in 2018, then 53.3% in 2020.

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“A life together”, whatever the result

This third referendum, however, comes in a world that has changed a lot: on the one hand, the archipelago, which has some 1.5 million km² exclusive economic zone, is located in a region that has become strategic due to the rise of China; on the other hand, the nickel and cobalt it produces have become essential mining resources for the new electric battery market, guarantors of the planet’s ecological transition.

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Whatever the outcome of the referendum, “The next day there will be life together [avec la France] “, especially “Taking into account the geopolitical reality of the region”, thus assured, Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron.

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 the victory of the “yes” Sunday would relate to the constitution of a new state and, if the “no” prevails, to a new status in the Republic. Dialogue will not be easy, however. The FLNKS and the nationalists have already warned, Thursday, in a press release, that they rejected any meeting with the overseas minister, Sébastien Lecornu, who arrived in Nouméa on Friday, before the French presidential election, in April 2022.

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The World with AFP