(Nouméa) Unsurprisingly, the No to independence won overwhelmingly on Sunday during the third self-determination referendum in New Caledonia, marked by a record abstention after the call for separatists to shun the ballot.
According to the final results, the No to the independence of this strategic French archipelago of the South Pacific wins with 96.49% of the votes. The Yes received 3.51%, the blank and null votes 2.99%.
Turnout stands at 43.90%, a free fall compared to previous referendums.
“The promise of a common destiny must continue to guide us,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.
“New Caledonia will therefore remain French”, he underlined during a solemn address, specifying to welcome with “respect and humility” the result of this consultation, while “the electorate has remained deeply divided”, separatists having shunned the ballot box.
Two previous elections on November 4, 2018 and October 4, 2020, organized as part of the decolonization process of the Nouméa Accord, were won by the pro-France with 56.7% and then 53.3% of the vote.
PHOTO CLOTILDE RICHALET, ASSOCIATED PRESS
This time, the separatists decided not to participate in the vote which they wanted to postpone to September 2022, citing the impossibility of organizing “a fair campaign” while the archipelago has been affected since September by the COVID epidemic. 19, and that the Kanak population is plunged into mourning.
The slogan of non-participation of the FLNKS and all the nationalists seems to have been followed to the letter.
In this context, the victory of the loyalists was expected and all the staffs are already considering their proposals for the future.
“This evening New Caledonia is finally catching its breath. The Nouméa agreement is over […] We have decided in our heart and conscience to remain French. […] It is no longer negotiable. And that’s the meaning of the story! “, Launched Sunday evening the president of the southern province of New Caledonia, figure of the loyalist camp, Sonia Backès.
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 yes Sunday, would relate to the constitution of a new State and, if not, to a new statute in the Republic.
“Quickly start a dialogue”
The dialogue will not be so easy, however. The FLNKS and the nationalists have already made it known that they would not recognize the result of the ballot and that they would contest it before international bodies. They also warned that they were rejecting any meeting with Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who arrived in Nouméa on Friday, before the French presidential election in April 2022.
“Informal contacts have never been severed. I realize they need to take time […] nevertheless, some topical issues are urgent and require a rapid dialogue with local institutions and political groups, ”the minister told AFP.
“On the institutional question, we have until June 2023 to define a new future. We have more time to work on it. The State does not intend to confuse speed and haste in this important phase, ”he added.
While the State had deployed an impressive security device – 2,000 gendarmes and police, 130 vehicles, 30 armored vehicles and air assets – for fear of seeing this archipelago ignite which has already experienced episodes of unrest, the ballot s ‘took place without incident.
PHOTO CLOTILDE RICHALET, ASSOCIATED PRESS
“There was no overflow, no incident, no obstacle to movement and access to polling stations,” said the High Commissioner, adding that “the security system remains reinforced until the proclamation final results ”Monday.
Residents of working-class neighborhoods in Noumea criticized this debauchery of security measures, which they considered a “provocation”.
New Caledonia has been included since 1986 on the list of non-self-governing territories to be decolonized by the UN, which has also dispatched experts to ensure the proper conduct of the ballot.