New Caledonia rejects split from France in vote marred by boycott
Residents of the Pacific territory of New Caledonia have voted overwhelmingly to remain part of France in a referendum boycotted by pro-independence groups.
In the third referendum on the matter, the decision to stay within the French republic was carried by 96.49% to 3.51%, but a turnout of just over 40% suggested the indigenous Kanak people have not given up on dreams of independence.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said after the result that the territory would remain French and hailed it as a resounding confirmation of France’s role in the Indo-Pacific, but announced negotiations on the territory’s future status.
“A period of transition is beginning. Free from the binary choice of yes or no, we must now build a common project, while recognising and respecting the dignity of everyone,” he said.
The pro-independence Kanak and Socialist Liberation Front (FLNKS) had called for indigenous Kanaks not to participate in the vote, arguing that Covid – which has disproportionately affected Kanak and Pasifika communities – had made pro-independence campaigning impossible, as entire villages observe customary mourning rites.
Participation figures clearly indicate that the call to boycott was heeded, and they were particularly low in independence-supporting indigenous areas, where security forces maintained checkpoints at many polling stations and queues were sparse.
In the Belep Islands, where the population is entirely Kanak, no one went to vote. At a polling station in the territory’s capital, Nouméa, for relocated Belep Islanders to vote, just six out of a registered 200 people did so.
“It’s very simple,” said Roland Berlo, 58, at the polling station. “The Kanak people were asked not to vote, and the slogan was followed. We did not vote because we are in mourning. The Kanak people are very united, in the north, in the south, in the islands. It has always been so.”
Queues outside polling booths were by contrast long in the predominantly white and wealthy southern districts of Nouméa after polling opened at 7am on Sunday.
“I did not go to vote and I will not today,” said Bernard Christian, 40, a Kanak inhabitant of Mont-Dore, a town close to Nouméa. “I will not vote, in sign of solidarity with all the Kanak community and because the indigenous people have a right to independence.”
French police patrol the Baie de l’Orphelinat, in the south of Nouméa, New Caledonia. Photograph: Dominique Catton/The Guardian
Many of the people of Saint-Louis, a predominantly Kanak village, agreed. “Here in my village everyone respects the boycott and we are more preoccupied by the cyclone coming on Monday than by the vote,” said Adolphe Wamytan, a Saint-Louis resident.
“I hope everybody will respect the non-violence call, because we don’t want to give the French militaries the opportunity to demonstrate their power of repression. This referendum does not resolve anything: we the indigenous people will have to be there and united for what’s next and the negotiations to come, we’ll never give up the idea of independence.”
It was the third referendum on whether New Caledonia should become independent from France. In 2018, 43% voted for independence, and in 2020 this rose to 47%, and the participation rate was more than 85%.
Fears were raised of violence after the latest vote, and over the past month 2,000 French military officers had arrived in New Caledonia, along with armoured vehicles and military equipment. On election day the sale of alcohol was prohibited, as well as the sale of retail fuel, and the transport of ammunition and arms – such as guns traditionally used for hunting and machetes for chopping wood and coconuts – was also forbidden.
Sonia Backès, a pro-France campaigner, hailed the result as a “great victory”, adding: “We are French, we will remain it and it is not negotiable.”
FLNKS leaders argued before the vote that the result would be questionable if there was no full participation of Kanaks, and called for it to be delayed, but France refused.
The referendum on independence from France is the third and final vote on the issue. Photograph: Dominique Catton/The Guardian
“It is simply impossible for us to campaign and organise this referendum because of all the mourning that we are undergoing,” said Johanyto Wamytan, a Kanak and pro-independence activist for the Union Calédonienne party.
“The custom of mourning is really crucial for the Kanak people. It is a time when the chiefs of clans can meet for several weeks to renew alliances and keep the custom alive. The tomb is closed and finished only after a year. I lost a very important cousin during this crisis. We could not do the custom. When I go to people to talk about the referendum as a politician, they refuse to receive me.”
Other Pacific leaders had backed calls for the vote to be delayed, including the Pacific Elders’ Voice, a group of former presidents and prime ministers of Pacific nations, who wrote to Macron urging him “to respect the wishes of indigenous leaders in New Caledonia who have called for the deferral of the third independence referendum due to a spike in Covid-related deaths.”
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A delegation made up of three Kanak leaders left for New York on Tuesday to express this opposition to the UN general assembly.
The French minister of overseas territories, Sébastien Lecornu, who arrived in the archipelago on Friday, said the Nouméa agreement – the text that specifies the process of decolonisation – “comes to an end” and that Monday would mark the start of a “transition period” towards a new status for the territory.
“The first political lesson is that the territory is still as divided, block against block, and we have now the duty to get out of this binary situation,” he said.