New Caledonia readies for election

Six months after New Caledonia voted against independence from France, this weekend's provincial elections will offer a new opportunity to test the same question.

Politics in New Caledonia continue to be defined as an overarching contest between those for and those against independence and not as a battle between the left and right.

While previous elections always resulted in a Congress, and then a government, dominated by the pro-French camp, this year may see the balance tilt.

For this to happen, the anti-independence camp would have to lose three or more seats in the 54-strong Congress.

The anti-independence side fears this could happen, the pro-independence side hopes it will.

The decision rests with the officially 169,635 registered voters wooed by no fewer than 25 lists of candidates.

The Noumea Accord, which is the decolonisation roadmap agreed to in 1998, keeps guiding the institutional process for the next few years.

This means that New Caledonia's parliament, or Congress, as well as the collegial 11-member government must emanate from the three assemblies chosen in the three provinces.

The Northern Province and the Loyalty Islands Province have assemblies with 22 and 14 seats respectively.

Both provinces, with their large Kanak majorities, are bastions of the pro-independence politicians.

In the dominant Southern Province, centred on Noumea with its strongly anti-independence population, the assembly has 40 members.

Out of these three assemblies, 54 members are drawn to form the Congress which is chosen for a five-year period.

The referendum in November, which saw just under 57 percent opt for the status-quo, was decided by voters who had to have lived there since 1998.

The roll was restricted and inscribed in the French constitution to counter the effects of migration from France which has turned the indigenous Kanaks into a minority.

The provincial elections have a similarly restricted roll, leaving off an estimated 40,000 people although they may have been living there for years.

Associations and campaigns since last November to loosen the voting restrictions have been rebuffed by the pro-independence side which insists on following the process to the letter.