29 Aug 2017

Call for New Caledonia's fraudulent rolls to be cleaned up

11:27 am on 29 August 2017

The leader of New Caledonia's Labour Party says fraudulent rolls need to be cleaned up for next year's independence referendum to go ahead.

The New Caledonia congress.

The New Caledonia congress. Photo: AFP

Louis Kotra-Uregei made the call in a television interview in which he also urged France to automatically enrol all Kanaks because they are the colonised people.

He said they should be called to determine their future.

Special commissions have been vetting the rolls to include only long-term residents but he says their work is biased.

"There is a fraud which has been legalised at the level of the mayors by the vote of the special administrative commission charged with controls."

Mr Kotra Uregei said if these two conditions were not met there was every chance of a referendum boycott.

In 1987, the Kanaks boycotted a French-sponsored independence referendum and 98.3 percent voted in favour of staying with France.