The 307 polling stations in New Caledonia, French territory in the Pacific, opened Sunday at 7 a.m. (9 p.m. Saturday in Paris) for a third referendum for or against independence, which the separatists decided to shun.
At the town hall of Nouméa, place des cocotiers, around fifty people lined up at 7 a.m.
Read also New Caledonia: a third referendum in the form of an impasse
Two police officers were also present next to the polling stations.
The authorities have deployed an important security device, which wants to be "
reassuring
" and "
dissuasive
", of 2,000 gendarmes, police and soldiers.
Voters have until 7 p.m. (9 a.m. in Paris) to come and say if they want New Caledonia "to
achieve full sovereignty and become independent
".
The separatists will shun the ballot box
Sunday morning, 184,332 people were registered on the special electoral list for consultation (LESC), but the separatists announced that they would not go to the polls, citing the impossibility of organizing "
a fair campaign
" while the archipelago has been affected since September by a Covid-19 epidemic. In this archipelago 18,000 kilometers from Paris, French since 1853 and which represents one of the last bastions of European sovereignty in the area after Brexit, a first ballot on November 4, 2018 saw the pro-French win by 56, 7% of the vote, but the No to independence represented only 53.3% in the second referendum on October 4, 2020.
Read also New Caledonia: the discussions of the "day after", challenge for the executive and stake for 2022
These referendums are part of a decolonization process that began in 1988 after several years of violence between the Kanaks, the first people, and the Caldoches, of European origin.
These clashes culminated in the taking of hostages and the assault on Ouvéa cave in May 1988 (25 dead).
A cyclonic pre-alert was triggered Sunday at 5 a.m. on the archipelago by civil security.
This weak tropical depression is currently located south of the Solomon Islands archipelago and should gradually approach New Caledonia until Tuesday, strengthening.
The sky was crystal clear on Sunday morning in Noumea.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/4ZD2HUBDGJPTFOGJTZKP7CNOPI.jpg)
