Fears of unrest as France denies delay of New Caledonia's final independence vote

Islanders in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia will on Sunday head to the polls for a third and final referendum on independence, despite repeated calls by indigenous Kanak leaders to postpone the vote because of the Covid pandemic.

The separatist stronghold in the north of the island has twice voted "yes" – with 100 percent of the vote – to leave the French Republic in polls held in 2018 and 2020.

But this time those voters have been told to stay home as tribal leaders urge a boycott of the 12th of December referendum.

They wanted it to be postponed until September, arguing "a fair campaign" was impossible with the high number of Covid infections.

New Caledonia's 270,000 residents were largely spared by Covid during the first phase of the pandemic, but have now seen close to 300 Covid deaths in recent months following the emergence of the Delta variant.

'Declaration of war'

Hopes of "a period of stability and convergence" following the vote have been thrown into doubt after the Kanaks said France's insistence on holding the referendum was “a declaration of war".

A boycott of could potentially see the archipelago, which has been a French territory since 1853, return to the violence last seen 30 years ago, before the feuding parties reached successive cooperation deals.

The French minister in charge of overseas territories, Sebastien Lecornu, said that while it was "a democratic right" to refuse to vote, the boycott would make no difference to the referendum's "legal validity".

France regards itself as a major Indo-Pacific power thanks to overseas territories such as New Caledonia. But the vote comes amid increasingly strained ties between Paris and its allies in the region.

Support for Kanaks

In a statement of support for the Kanak people, Communist Party MP and presidential candidate Fabien Roussel denounced the government for insisting on holding the third referendum "while New Caledonia is severely bereaved by the terrible effects of the Covid pandemic".

He added that France was “ruining the efforts of decades of compromises reached with the Kanak independence fighters”.

New Caledonia, which lies some 2,000 kilometres off the east coast of Australia, was allowed three independence referendums under a 1988 deal aimed at easing tensions on the island.

The pro-Paris side won the 2018 vote with 56.7 percent in favour of sticking with France, but that percentage fell to 53.3 percent in the 2020 poll.

The pro-independence camp had been hoping to tip the scales in the final referendum.

Read also: