The constitutional bill amending the electoral body for the provincial elections in late 2024 in New Caledonia was adopted on Tuesday, May 7th by the Law Committee of the National Assembly, with the votes of The Republicans and the National Rally. The text will be submitted to a vote in a session on Monday, May 13th at the Palais Bourbon. The debates in the Law Committee largely focused on the government’s method, in a politically blocked New Caledonian issue. The left has called for the withdrawal of the bill, which has been the subject of escalating tensions between pro-independence and loyalist parties in Noumea, each camp itself being divided approaching the next local election. The left also demands a mission of dialogue to finally achieve a prior agreement between loyalists and pro-independence movements on the future of the territory and New Caledonian citizenship.
The crux of the issue is that the territory has three different electoral bodies, stemming from major political agreements of Matignon (1988) and Noumea (1998) between the right-wing Caldoche movement of the Rally for Caledonia in the Republic (RPCR) and the pro-independence movement of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS): the “general” list following common rules for all French citizens in presidential, legislative, and European elections; the “special list for provincial elections,” more restricted and dependent on a minimum ten-year residency requirement by the date of the election; and the “special list for independence referendum consultations,” also reduced based on other criteria.
The Constitutional Council had decided in 1999 that only voters present for ten years on the island at the date of each election would be eligible to vote in provincial elections. However, in 2007, Jacques Chirac began revising the Constitution to freeze the electoral body by excluding those who had not been residing in New Caledonia for ten years by 1998, in order to uphold agreements made with the Kanak people. The government states that this freeze now excludes one in five citizens from voting, and the planned expansion will add 12,400 people born on the island and 13,100 residents registered for ten years on the general list, representing a 14% increase in voters.
The left believes that the current situation could add more tension to an already complex political landscape in New Caledonia, while the government insists that any agreement reached will lead to a suspension of further constitutional revision. The ongoing debates and disagreements highlights the deep divides and complexities within the New Caledonian political sphere, with factions on multiple fronts calling for different approaches to the electoral process. The outcomes of these discussions and decisions will have a significant impact on the future of the territory and its citizens. The push and pull between loyalists and pro-independence movements continues to shape the political landscape in the lead-up to the next election.
