New Caledonia: separatists call for non-participation in 3rd referendum
Supporters of the Kanak independence party FLNKS in October 2020. The FLNKS calls for “non-participation” in the 3rd referendum scheduled for December 12.
(Image illustration).
AFP - THEO ROUBY
Text by: Anthony Lattier Follow
4 min
Does the Covid-19 epidemic call into question the holding of the third and last referendum on the independence of New Caledonia scheduled for December 12?
The separatists are now calling for the “non-participation” and the postponement of this crucial ballot for the process of decolonization of this French overseas territory located in the Pacific.
A stance that arouses the indignation of the non-independence camp.
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The press release fell the day after the visit to the archipelago by French overseas minister Sébastien Lecornu.
The Kanak separatists believe that the conditions for organizing a calm referendum campaign are not met because of the Covid-19 epidemic and the partial confinement of the population of New Caledonia.
The FLNKS, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, has been highlighting for several days the fact that residents are afraid of the virus and that others are in mourning.
The FLNKS judges that the “
campaign will not be fair
”, especially as the debates focus on France's support to fight the Covid-19 crisis.
►Also read: New Caledonia: Covid-19, justice of the peace of the third independence referendum?
The other argument put forward by the Kanak separatists is the following:. If the consultation takes place on December 12 under these conditions, the results will be contested and that "
will not bring the necessary serenity for the continuation of consensual discussions on the future institution of the country
”.
In other words, this would compromise the self-determination process of this French overseas territory, as defined by the Nouméa Accords signed in 1998.
No reaction from Sébastien Lecornu
Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who returned to Paris on Tuesday, is careful not to react to this position taken by the FLNKS for the moment. His entourage repeats the message that the minister conveyed during his stay on the archipelago: in a democracy, the polls must be held on time.
For Sébastien Lecornu, the epidemic situation is "
tense, but held
" and does not prevent the holding of the referendum in less than two months. “
It's been over thirty years since the process started, it's been over twenty years since the Noumea Accord was signed, it has even been extended. Will five weeks of confinement change everything? I do not think so. Does this virus create fears, that's for sure. Well, the path of passage, it is there […] We must go to the end of the process,
”he explained on Radio Rythme Bleu on October 15.
To try to reassure, Sébastien Lecornu added that in the event of a "
violent epidemic resumption
", a postponement of the poll would be considered.
After having been spared for a long time, the archipelago is facing its first wave of Covid-19 since September.
The confinement decreed on September 7 was relaxed, but maintained on weekends, as was the curfew.
The incidence rate is falling, but it is still considered “
too high
” by the authorities.
The vaccination rate - very low a few weeks ago - is accelerating: just over half of Caledonians are fully vaccinated.
"
Risk of a political impasse
"
For the separatists, the French government "
persists
" for political reasons in order to "
settle the Noumea Accord under its five-year term
", therefore before the French presidential election next April. It is for this reason that the FLNKS asks for the postponement of this final referendum after the French electoral deadlines.
The position taken by the separatists makes the loyalist camp leap, those who want New Caledonia to remain French. The “Voices of the No” group, which brings together the main anti-independence parties, accuses the FLNKS of “
instrumentalizing the health situation
”. They think that the separatists are in reality afraid of the result, knowing that the no to independence has already won in the first two referendums of 2018 (56.7%) and 2020 (53.3%).
This call from the FLNKS "
risks putting the whole country in a political impasse and causing history to stutter
" adds the center-right Caledonia party together.
The group "The Voices of No" announces "
the restart
" of its referendum campaign.
Whatever the outcome of the consultation, a transitional period will open during which
a new status for the Pacific archipelago
will be discussed,
at the very least
.
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