NEW Caledonia’s long-delayed provincial elections will be held on June 28, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has announced.
But a condition to relax voter eligibility restrictions has drawn sharp criticism from both pro-independence and pro-France factions.
The change would allow around 10,000 people born in New Caledonia and their spouses to vote–voters currently excluded under the “freeze” imposed by the 1998 Nouméa Accord. The new rules require an organic law yet to be endorsed by French lawmakers before taking effect.
Pro-France Rassemblement party leader Virginie Ruffenach called the compromise “a way forward” but said it was “obviously not the ‘unfrozen’ electoral roll that we were calling for.” Another prominent pro-France leader, Sonia Backès, dismissed the changes as “insufficient” and “democratically unacceptable.” She also mentioned local moves to bring the matter before the European Court of Human Rights to have additional excluded voter categories re-included.
The pro-independence FLNKS party said it took note of the date but stressed that electoral conditions are “at the heart of the Nouméa Accord” and not negotiable.
In a statement the FLNKS said the issues were at the heart of the decolonisation process and warned against any unilateral decision.
The elections determine New Caledonia’s three provincial assemblies, its Congress, its collegial government and its future president. Last held in 2019, the poll has been postponed three times since 2024. France’s Constitutional Council has warned it would no longer tolerate further delays.
Source: Asia Pacific Report
