Stay French, or not? New Caledonia holds independence vote

2 years ago 314

NOUMEA – The South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia decides Sunday whether to interruption distant from France, successful a ballot that is important for French geopolitical ambitions and is intimately watched amid increasing Chinese power successful the region.

But pro-independence forces are refusing to instrumentality part, accusing the authorities successful Paris of trying to unreserved done the vote.

The COVID-19 situation analyzable the run for the referendum, the 3rd and past specified ballot foreseen arsenic portion of decades of decolonization efforts. The process is aimed astatine settling tensions betwixt autochthonal Kanaks seeking independency and those who privation the territory to stay portion of France.

When polls unfastened astatine 7 a.m. successful New Caledonia – a immense archipelago eastbound of Australia that is 10 clip zones up of Paris – voters volition beryllium asked to ballot yes oregon nary connected the question: “Do you privation New Caledonia to execute afloat sovereignty and go independent?”

The territory of 270,000 radical won wide autonomy aft unit successful 1988 led to a governmental process known arsenic the Noumea Agreement. The accord provides for the “progressive, accompanied and irreversible transportation of powers from the French authorities to New Caledonia” – but for powers implicit defense, information justice, overseas affairs and currency.

In the archetypal specified referendum successful 2018, 43.6% of voters supported independence, and 46.7% supported it successful the 2nd ballot successful 2020. While enactment for a “yes” ballot seemed to beryllium growing, the region’s archetypal outbreak of COVID-19 successful September threw the governmental statement into disarray. Until then, New Caledonia had been 1 of the fewer virus-free places near connected the planet.

By November, 271 deaths had been recorded and the determination Senate decreed a twelvemonth of accepted Kanak mourning. Independence activists felt they couldn’t run retired of respect for their dead, and demanded that the referendum beryllium postponed.

But pro-France groups insisted that the day beryllium maintained, to extremity uncertainty implicit the region’s aboriginal and boost its economical prospects. After subject medics were sent from the mainland, the microorganism concern stabilized, and the cardinal authorities decided to support the Dec. 12 date.

Pro-independence activists announced they would garbage to instrumentality portion successful the vote, accusing the authorities successful Paris of imposing the referendum day and violating neutrality by publishing a papers seen arsenic casting the consequences of independency successful a antagonistic light.

That resulted successful a unusual campaign: bare billboards, nary flags successful the street, antithetic calm.

“It is so hard to hole and play a lucifer erstwhile the hostile announces that they volition not come,” the pro-France Voices of “No” Collective said. But the radical inactive called for a “massive ballot turnout, truthful arsenic not to beryllium robbed of the result.”

What’s astatine involvement successful this referendum goes beyond helium aboriginal of Caledonians alone.

Unlike successful erstwhile votes, this clip “the question of New Caledonia’s strategical positioning is addressed. This novelty comes successful the discourse of AUKUS (a submarine concern involving Australia, the U.S. and U.K.) and the assertion of Chinese-American rivalry successful the Pacific,” said Caroline Gravelat, nationalist instrumentality prof astatine the University of New Caledonia.

France is trying to cement its beingness successful the portion aft the AUKUS woody was announced successful September, scuttling an earlier French submarine declaration with Australia. The secretly negotiated task was a immense stroke to France, and particularly to its ambitions successful the Indo-Pacific.

New Caledonia hosts 1 of 2 French subject bases successful the Pacific, which allows France to lend to determination security. It presently cooperates with the U.S., Australia and New Zealand connected maritime surveillance, hunt and rescue astatine sea, water demining and the combat against amerciable fishing.

The imaginable independency of New Caledonia “raises the question of the already precise beardown Chinese power successful Oceania, a large taxable of interest for Western partners,” Gravelat said.

New Caledonia became French successful 1853 nether Emperor Napoleon III — Napoleon’s nephew — and was utilized for decades arsenic a situation colony. It became an overseas territory aft World War II, with French citizenship granted to each Kanaks successful 1957. Today its colonisation includes autochthonal Kanaks and descendants of European colonizers, among others.

The U.N. has supported New Caledonia’s decolonization process, and sent electoral observers to show Sunday’s vote. The Pacific Islands Forum is besides watching closely, and sent a delegation to observe the vote.

Even if the territory votes to enactment French, the process started by the Noumea Agreement does not extremity instantly aft the poll. The state, separatists and non-separatists would person 18 months to negociate a caller presumption for the territory and its institutions wrong France.

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