MILLIONS of leaflets with candidate lists and party propaganda have been collated for distribution to voters across New Caledonia, in the lead up to next week’s provincial elections.
On Sunday, 192,552 voters are registered on the Special electoral list, to vote for candidates seeking a seat in New Caledonia’s three provincial assemblies and national Congress.
The majority – 127,440 voters – reside in the Southern Province, including the capital Noumea and surrounding towns like Païta, Mont Dore and Dumbea. In the Northern Province, there are 43,018 eligible voters, while in the outlying Loyalty Islands Province, another 22,094.
The elections are managed by the French High Commission and under French law, voters should receive an election leaflet from each party or coalition that is competing in the elections. More than 3,520,000 leaflets have been printed, collated and packed into envelopes, to be sent to voters across the country.
On Friday, French High Commissioner Jacques Billant visited Noumea Town Hall, where the packets of electoral information were being assembled by more than 120 workers for distribution.
“Democracy comes at a price,” Billant said. “The French State covers the full cost of packaging and delivering the electoral propaganda, amounting to around 60 million Pacific francs” [$AUD870,000].
On May 20, the French National Assembly confirmed that another 10,575 locally born New Caledonians would be
added to the electoral rolls for these elections.
High Commissioner Billant told Islands Business that these new voters were already registered and would receive the relevant electoral information for their province, with the majority living in the Southern Province.
Leaflets from each of 23 competing electoral lists must be with voters by tomorrow (Tuesday), so the massive task of collating the material prioritised delivery to the outer islands (the Loyalty Islands, Belep and Isle of Pines). This was followed by the rural towns and tribes across the Northern Province.
Then, over the weekend, material for the 11 lists running in the Southern Province was prepared for delivery to urban voters on Monday morning.
For Caroline Chalier of the Office of Post and Telecommunications (OPT), it’s a major exercise to deliver electoral information across the country.
“There’s a huge logistical operation to put in place, both human and material,” she said. “We’ve had to set up a dedicated taskforce to distribute the electoral information. We’ve had to draw on people from all sections of the OPT, to ensure we can deliver.”
“For the main island, we’ve been able to use road transport, but for the outer islands we’ve had to rely on aircraft or small boats.”
Military aircraft from the Forces Armées en Nouvelle-Calédonie (FANC) and the airline Air Alizé were seconded to carry material to communities in the outer islands.
Copies of electoral leaflets are also available online, and electoral coalitions are allocated time after the evening news for brief presentation of their platform.
Despite all this effort, voting is not compulsory, so candidates are still holding community meetings across the country, seeking to mobilise supporters. In Noumea, throughout this week, the major coalitions will hold final public meetings before campaigning ends before the weekend.
