The call of the separatists to shun the ballot has been heard. Participation in the third and last self-determination referendum in New Caledonia stood at 41.60% at 5 p.m. (7 a.m. in Paris) on Sunday, December 12, according to the High Commission.
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A very sharp drop compared to the two previous referendums. Won by the “no” camp at independence, participation at 5 p.m. stood at 73.68% for the first consultation in 2018, and 79.63% in 2020.
The separatists had announced that they 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 epidemic and the Kanak population is plunged into mourning.
In the city of Nouméa, where 59.4% of those registered had voted at 4 p.m., against 76.4% in 2020, all offices saw their participation decline. But it collapses squarely in some offices such as the one located in the popular district of Kaméré, which went from a participation of 66.8% at 4 p.m. in 2020 to 21.9% on Sunday at the same time.
The authorities had planned exceptional means to prevent any slippage during this day: 2,000 gendarmes and police, 130 vehicles, 30 armored vehicles and air assets were deployed. “to blue the territory” in the words of the High Commissioner of the Republic.
Whatever the outcome of the referendum, “the next day there will be life together” with France, in particular “given the geopolitical reality of the region“, assured President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday. The dialogue will not be so easy, however, the FLNKS and the nationalists have already warned Thursday that they reject any meeting with the Minister of Overseas Sébastien Lecornu, who arrived in Nouméa on Friday, before the French presidential election in April 2022.