New Caledonia rejects independence vote
NOUMEA: Islanders on the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia on Sunday rejected independence in a referendum that revealed weaker- thanexpected support for Paris in the resource- rich and strategic outpost.
On the final count, 56.4 percent of people rejected the proposition that New Caledonia – some 18,000 kilometres from the French mainland – become independent.
Turnout was high at 80.63 percent.
President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “immense pride that we have taken this historic step together” in an address to the nation, adding it was “a sign of confidence in the French republic, in its future and its values.”
The island is home to a quarter of the world’s known supplies of nickel – a vital electronics component – and is a foothold for France in the Pacific where
We’re a short step away from victory and there are still two votes to come.
China is gaining influence.
But the winning margin in New Caledonia, sometimes referred to in France as “the pebble”, might cause some concern in Paris, as well as in Australia which has been alarmed by Beijing’s designs in the Pacific and its investment in island nations.
Polls beforehand had forecast an emphatic 63- 75 percent of New Caledonians would vote “no” when asked if the archipelago should “attain full sovereignty and become independent”.
Under a 1998 deal called the Noumea Accord to devolve powers to the territory, two further votes on independence can be held by 2022 -- a right independence leaders look set to invoke.
“We’re a short step away from victory and there are still two votes to come,” Alosio Sako, head of the separatist movement FLNKS, said after the results were announced.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe arrived on the island Monday where he will meet political forces on both sides of the independence vote to discuss the future of the territory.
Alosio Sako, FLNKS head