Patrick
Decloitre
RNZ Pacific French Pacific desk
correspondent
Heavy security has been deployed in New
Caledonia as crucial provincial elections are being held in
the French Pacific territory on Sunday.
Polling
stations are open from 8am Sunday local time (9am NZ time)
until 6pm.
This comes as a heavy security set-up has
been deployed. It involves a total of some 2,500 law
enforcement officers, mostly policemen and gendarmes (the
equivalent of 16 squadrons, as opposed to 12 in normal
circumstances), as well as additional officers from the
French anti-crime squad and judiciary police.
The
reinforcements are to remain posted at least until early
July 2026 or longer, depending on how the situation
develops.
The heavy set-up mainly focuses on security
and monitoring of polling stations and their immediate
surroundings.
Drones and additional armoured vehicles
are also deployed on the ground, including the “Centaurs”
that were previously used during and after the
insurrectional riots that broke out in New Caledonia in May
2024, causing 14 dead and material damage of about €2.2
billion.
The whole security operation is meant to
“reassure” the population, as well as show the presence of
security forces on the ground and their capacity to
intervene quickly, if needed.
The French High
commission in New Caledonia said at the weekend the general
climate was relatively calm ahead of the vote.
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Since
last week, a total ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages
has been in force and will remain so until after election
day.
This, the High Commission said, was because New
Caledonia was still undergoing a “sensitive” period on
social and economic grounds.
Latest incident
on the Isle of Pines
However, on Friday
evening, in the small island town of Vao, on the Isle of
Pines (South off the capital Nouméa), at around midnight,
police and gendarmes were called to intervene following a
fire on a building located close to the Town Halls municipal
council meeting room, which were to be used as a polling
station for Sundays local elections.
The polling
station has now been relocated to a school canteen in the
same village of Vao.
As gendarmes later managed to
arrest one teenager, as part of a group of five, they were
also targeted by stones being thrown at them.
One of
the gendarmes had to be medivaced to
Nouméa.
Witnesses also said in the small building,
which also hosts local power company Enercal, safes
containing cash has been opened and cash stolen.
Two
flags were also stolen.
Public Prosecutor Yves Dupas
told local media an investigation was ongoing into the case,
but that initial findings tended to indicate that the main
target of the group was the electrical company’s office and
that subsequent damage to the designated polling station
nearby could be regarded as collateral.
The
perpetrators were also found to be “severely
inebriated.”
The latest incident has triggered swift
and angry reactions from the Great Chief of the Isle of
Pines, as well as from the Mayor Régis Vendegou and the
government of New Caledonia, which said “nothing can
justify” those actions.
No cyber threat so
far
The situation regarding potential
attempts of local or foreign cyber interference is also
closely monitored, with the assistance of French digital
watchdog agency “Viginum.”
But to date, no significant
threat has been reported in terms of attempts to “discredit
the electoral process, jeopardise the confidence of the
public in the media or trying to influence the public in
favour or against a specific party or
candidate.”
Polling stations around New Caledonia are
scheduled to close at 6pm on Sunday.
Provisional
results should later start to emerge, as voting counting
progresses during the evening.
As a result of the vote
involving some 192,584 registered voters (according to the
latest official figures), in 298 polling stations, the 76
members of New Caledonia’s three provinces (22 for the
Northern assembly, 40 for the Southern assembly and 14 for
the Loyalty Islands) will be designated.
On a
proportional basis, the three provinces will then be
represented and make up the Congress of New Caledonia,
consisting of 54 members.
From the new Congress, a new
local “collegial” government and its President would then
automatically emerge.
New Caledonia’s
diaspora votes by proxy
There are 127,474
registered voters in the Southern Province (where the
capital Nouméa is located), 43,016 in the Northern province
and 22,094 in the Loyalty Islands province.
An
estimated 5,000 voters (who will be either absent from New
Caledonia on polling day or who live in mainland France,
Australia, New Zealand or Vanuatu) will also express
themselves by
proxy.
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