UN observers, delegates from the control commission and gendarmerie reinforcements: everything is in place for the third self-determination referendum scheduled for Sunday, December 12 in New Caledonia, which the separatists have decided to shun.

The two previous referendums organized as part of the Nouméa accord in 2018 and 2020 had been won by the loyalist camp, but with a score falling from 56.7% to 53.3% of votes for the no to l 'independence.

The territory, which had managed to escape the Covid-19 epidemic by closing its borders in early 2020, was overtaken by the virus in September, with a death toll of 280, mainly affecting the Kanaks.

>> To read on France 24: The fractures of New Caledonia rekindled on the eve of the last referendum on independence

The separatists demanded the postponement of the poll because of the impossibility of "carrying out a fair campaign" because of the epidemic, which was refused by the government, pushing the Socialist Kanak National Liberation Front (FLNKS) to call its activists not to vote.

Tuesday, the Council of State rejected the request of a collective of citizens to postpone the referendum, considering that the health context did not "impede" the conduct of the ballot.

For its part, the Customary Senate, an institution which embodies traditional Kanak power, on Thursday asked "Kanak citizens and Caledonian progressives to observe a national day of 'Kanak mourning' on December 12, 2021 by not going to the offices of vote".

"Call for calm"

Its president, Yvon Kona, also launched an "appeal for calm, so that there is no disturbance: everyone is free to exercise their right to vote, no one will be prevented from voting".

He thus responds to a call from the chairman of the control commission Francis Lamy, who asked that there be no "external demonstrations which can be likened to pressure on the voter, for example to dissuade him from going to vote, or to vote in a certain direction ".

The authorities have deployed an important security device, which wants to be "reassuring" and "dissuasive", of 2,000 gendarmes, police and soldiers.

Three days before the ballot, they had already taken their place ostensibly on the roundabouts and at the edge of the stone roads.

For its part, the non-independence camp tried to convince its voters to come to the polls, but some leaders fear "participation in free fall".

"There is no stake, the result is not a shadow of a doubt," laments Philippe Michel, campaign director of the center-right party, Calédonie Ensemble.

For its part, the loyalist coalition "Voices of the No" launched a call for a massive vote not to "let the result be stolen", recalling "that an election is never decided in advance".

A small and ultra-sensitive electorate

Concretely, the ballot is reserved for the 185,004 voters registered on the Special List of Electors for Consultation (LESC).

Because the composition of the electorate is historically a very sensitive subject in New Caledonia, where only voters who meet certain criteria will be able to participate in the third referendum on independence on Sunday.

To be included, it is necessary in particular to prove a continuous residence in New Caledonia since at least December 31, 1994, to belong to the customary Kanak civil status or to be born in New Caledonia and to have his material and moral interests there.

Because of these criteria, 35,275 voters on the general electoral list (LEG), valid for presidential, legislative, municipal and European elections, are not entitled to vote on Sunday.

There is in New Caledonia a third electoral body, intended for the provincial elections, of which the last of the Nouméa agreement took place in May 2019. It also very supervised, its main condition is to be resident in New Caledonia since at least November 8, 1998.

These provisions derogating from French law are included in Title XIII of the Constitution entitled "transitional provisions relating to New Caledonia".

Thus after the referendum of December 12, any new small electorate will require a constitutional revision.

This ultra-sensitive point risks being at the center of the political negotiations which will begin because the separatists have always criticized France for having drowned their claim under successive migratory flows.

Along with Algeria, New Caledonia was indeed the only settlement colony of the French Empire.

The convicts were succeeded by free settlers, hired Asian workers, then during the nickel boom of the 1970s metropolitan residents, Tahitians and Wallisians and Futunians.

In the 2000s, under the effect of a second mining boom, several thousand people also came to settle on the Caillou.

A phenomenon that has since turned around since at the last census (2019), and for the first time since 1983, the migratory balance of New Caledonia was negative (less 10,300 inhabitants in 5 years).

With AFP

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