New Caledonia votes to remain part of France in referendum
- The referendum is part of a carefully negotiated decolonisation plan agreed in 1998, known as the Noumea Accord
- China has in recent years been expanding its influence in the resource-rich region
The South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia voted against independence from France in a referendum on Sunday, full provisional results showed.
The ‘no’ camp won 53.26 per cent of the vote, a narrower margin of victory than in a previous referendum in 2018, which saw 56.7 per cent of people supporting independence.
The turnout of 85.5 per cent was much higher than last time, reflecting enthusiasm of voters who had formed long queues to cast their ballots in a region which has been part of France since 1853.
Sunday’s referendum was part of a carefully negotiated decolonisation plan agreed in 1998 which ended a deadly conflict between the mostly pro-independence indigenous Kanak population and the descendants of European settlers known as “Caldoches” in the 1980s.
That violence culminated in a bloody, drawn-out hostage crisis in 1988 that saw 19 separatists killed on one side, and six police and special forces on the other.