New Caledonia readies for Sunday's election

Transcript

Voters in New Caledonia will go to the polls on Sunday in an election crucial for a possible series of three independence referenda.

The process is enshrined in the 1998 Noumea Accord on greater autonomy, which provides for a phased and irreversible transfer of power from France.

In Sunday's election, 76 seats in three provincial assemblies are at stake.

Walter Zweifel reports.

More than 150,000 voters are called to cast their ballots in an election which has a restricted electorate because of the Noumea Accord.

This is to ensure that only long-term residents vote for the three assemblies, out of which a 54-member Congress will be formed that can determine the territory's future status.

For weeks, the question of who is allowed to vote dogged public debate, with the pro-independence FLNKS insisting that more than 6,000 voters were enrolled illegally.

The issue, as experts and politicians illustrated in a debate on RRB Radio in Noumea, has produced incompatible interpretations of the rules.

The matter has gone to court in New Caledonia where there was no unitary interpretation of the rules and now the matter is on appeal before France's highest court.

Under the Noumea Accord, a collegial government will then be formed to reflects the relative strength of the parties in Congress.

In the outgoing Congress the majority has been held by members of anti-independence parties.

The Northern province and the Loyalty Islands province, which are poorer and less populated, are likely to remain the domain of the pro-independence lists.

In the southern province, the rift within the anti-independence camp has raised expectations that the unified rival pro-independence list may at last get a substantial foothold in the Noumea area.

The main lists of the anti-independence parties are led by Philippe Gomes, Cynthia Ligeard and Sonia Backes.

The National Front is also led by a woman, which makes New Caledonia an oddity in Melanesia where women politicians tend to be ignored.

In this context, French law applies and lists must alternate male and female candidates.

While the high cost of living has vexed many for years, the election campaign has focused on what should become of the Noumea Accord.

Three rounds of voting are planned according to the Accord but talk is now of finding a way around, with the options being up for debate.

Philippe Gomes of the Caledonia Together Party says it is pointless to have what he terms a frontal vote without fleshing out the options as he explained on local television.

PHILIPPE GOMES: Ce que nous proposons, c'est un referendum eclaire. Nous nous mettrons autour la table avant le referendum avec les independantistes, les non-independantistes et l'etat et nous construisons ensemble une alternative...

Mr Gomes says there has been an informed referendum, with round table discussions explaining what the options entail.

He argues that being with France, New Caledonia can protect itself against certain people inside the territory and be safe from what he calls external predators that could recolonise the territory economically.

Roch Wamytan of the FLNKS movement says he wants the Accord to run its term until 2018 so that the territory can be decolonised.

What the future status will look like is not clear, but the likely options include continued ties with France.

Looking at models in the region, New Caledonia may emulate Niue or the Cook Islands, rather than Solomon Islands or Fiji whose decolonisation meant a cut with the erstwhile rulers.