New Caledonia votes on whether to stay part of France

Voters in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia cast ballots Sunday on whether to break away from France

France New Caledonia (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Voters in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia cast ballots Sunday on whether to break away from France but pro-independence forces urged a boycott because of the pandemic and what they called unfair actions by the state.

A tropical storm also threatened to dampen enthusiasm for the vote. Lines snaked out of some polling stations anyway, as winds whipped palm trees lining the streets of the regional capital Noumea. But turnout at some polling stations was lower than during two previous referendums on independence.

The referendum is important for French geopolitical ambitions in Indo-Pacific, and it is being closely watched amid growing Chinese influence in the region. New Caledonia, colonized by Napoleon's nephew in the 19th century, is a vast archipelago of about 270,000 people east of Australia that is 10 time zones ahead of Paris

“Do you want New Caledonia to gain full sovereignty and become independent?” This was the question put to people in the archipelago's 307 voting stations. Masks and social distancing measures were required.

The three votes have been part of a decades-long decolonization process that stemmed from violence in 1988, which led to the French government handing New Caledonia broad autonomy.

The campaign and voting day were unusually calm because of the boycott call.

“There are a lot less people" than during previous referendums, said Laura Vendegou, assessor at a polling station welcoming New Caledonians from the Loyalty Islands. “The opening was very calm.”

But at the Noumea city hall, voters showed up at 6:30 a.m. to line up to vote.

In the first such referendum in 2018, 43.6% of voters supported independence, and 46.7% favored it in a second vote held in 2020. While support for a “yes” vote seemed to be growing, the region’s first coronavirus outbreak in September threw the political debate into disarray. Until then, New Caledonia had been one of the few virus-free places left on the planet.

By November, the archipelago had reported 271 COVID-19 deaths, and the regional Senate decreed a year of traditional Kanak mourning. Independence activists felt they couldn’t campaign out of respect for their dead, and demanded that the referendum be postponed.

But pro-France groups insisted the vote should take place as scheduled to end uncertainty over New Caledonia’s future and to boost its economic prospects. Pro-independence activists announced they would refuse to take part, accusing the government in Paris of imposing the referendum date and violating neutrality by publishing a document seen as casting the consequences of independence in a negative light.

France is trying to cement its presence in the Indo-Pacific region after it lost a multibillion-dollar submarine contract because of a partnership Australia formed with the United States and the U.K. The secretly negotiated submarine project, announced in September and aimed at countering Chinese ambitions in the region, was a huge blow to France. New Caledonia hosts one of two French military bases in the Pacific.

The U.N. has supported New Caledonia’s decolonization process and sent electoral observers to monitor Sunday’s vote. The Pacific Islands Forum also sent a delegation to observe the vote.