Local Official: France ‘Responsible’ for Crisis in New Caledonia

The French state is responsible for the crisis in New Caledonia, a local political representative said.
Marie-Line Sakilia, a member of the New Caledonia Congress and the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, or FLNKS, an alliance of pro-independence political parties on the island, said that the “French state is responsible for the mobilisation of the loyalists and the pro-independence groups,” because it insisted on reforming the electoral rules without a local deal.
She recalled that the reform bill adopted on May 13 by the lawmakers in the French parliament aimed at unfreezing the electoral body ahead of the local elections.
The Pacific archipelago has been gripped by unrest since last week, sparked by a bill to review electoral rules.
If the changes to electoral rules are adopted, French nationals who have lived in the island nation for at least 10 years will be eligible to vote in local elections.
Locals, however, are concerned that the changes will dilute the indigenous Kanak population’s vote.
“This reform provoked a completely normal reaction of the local population, particularly that of the primary population, the Kanaks,” Sakilia said, stressing that the reform was making the Kanaks “a minority” in their country.
The UN in 1986 listed New Caledonia as a non-self-governing territory under French administration, which also means a territory to be decolonised.
The French state did not take into consideration the local funeral rituals and rushed to organise the referendum in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, according to Sakilia.
According to this referendum’s results, the New Caledonian population decided to remain in French territory.