The Electoral Reform in New Caledonia as a Blessing in Disguise

The constitutional amendment recently examined by the French Parliament would allow French citizens residing in New Caledonia for at least ten years to take part in local elections. Prompted by President Macron, this electoral reform has led to massive riots in recent weeks involving supporters and opponents of independence for this territory of the French Republic. The “Cellule de Coordination des Actions de Terrain” (CCAT), an entity of the New Caledonian pro-independence movement, is behind the massive blockades that have paralyzed the archipelago. These incidents have necessitated the declaration of a state of emergency and the dispatch of additional police from mainland France to deal with the growing number of acts of vandalism and looting in New Caledonia.

Local representatives fear that this reform will place the Kanak – the archipelago’s autochthonous people – in an even more inferior position vis-à-vis loyalist militants. Even if its implementation is highly contested on the Caledonian archipelago, this reform should nevertheless guarantee better representation of the population of New Caledonia. Expanding the electorate for local elections should also guarantee the right to vote more widely, in line with the democratic principles of the French Republic. Under this prism, the electoral reform in New Caledonia that is currently underway seems to be a blessing in disguise.

The electoral reform in New Caledonia and its issues

The voting right in mainland France is guaranteed for all French citizens who are at least eighteen years old on the day before the election. The personal scope of the voting right also includes the nationals of Member States of the European Union who reside on French soil. Their European citizenship allows them to vote in local elections, but not in national elections, which are reserved for French citizens. However, these rules do not apply to New Caledonia.

New Caledonia is part of the French Republic, yet, it has an exceptional status that sets it apart from the other French overseas collectivities. The 1998 Nouméa Accord ensures that New Caledonia has its own institutions and legislation that is different from mainland France. New Caledonia’s special characteristics are also reflected in the specific conditions for the exercise of the voting right. To vote in local elections, it is essential to have New Caledonian citizenship. There is also the requirement to have lived in the archipelago between 1988 and 1998 or to be the child of people meeting these criteria under Article 188 of the Law of 19 March 1999. The circle of people who can vote in New Caledonia is therefore much narrower than it is in mainland France.

The special conditions under which the voting right is exercised in New Caledonia have resulted in a particularly narrow electorate for local elections. The latter has been frozen since 8 November 1998 in application of the Nouméa Accord. Accordingly, French residents who arrived in the archipelago after that date cannot vote in local elections. The situation is even more astonishing for the native-born, who do not all have the voting right depending on whether their parents arrived in New Caledonia before or after the Nouméa Accord. Overall, 20% of French citizens residing in New Caledonia are deprived of the voting right in local elections, representing more than forty-two thousand voters out of a total population of around two hundred and seventy thousand in 2023.

Due to the birth rate and the gradual arrival of new residents, the increase in the archipelago’s population raises serious difficulties in terms of respect for democratic principles. A significant proportion of the population of New Caledonia is not represented in local elections. The members of the New Caledonian Government and Congress therefore receive their legitimacy from only part of the New Caledonian population. In the same way, the deprivation of the voting rights for a significant part of the archipelago’s population no longer seems justified today. The freezing of the electorate in 1998 was intended to enable Kanaks to vote for or against independence. However, the last referendum in 2021 confirmed the result of the first two, which was to remain part of the French Republic. It is all these considerations that are today motivating the French authorities to revise the 1958 Constitution to guarantee the democratic principles in New Caledonia.

The constitutional revision in the light of the French democratic principles

The reform of the electorate for local elections in New Caledonia, as announced by the French President, implies a revision of Article 77 of the French Constitution (1958). To this end, a constitutional amendment was submitted to the Senate, which adopted it on first reading on 27 February 2024. Parliamentary discussions in National Assembly also led to the adoption of the text on 15 May 2024. According to Article 89 of the French Constitution, the constitutional amendment must still be approved by referendum or by a 3/5 majority vote of the members of the Parliament in Congress. The text does, however, provide a mechanism for suspending the constitutional review if an agreement is reached between the French government and the local representatives. This agreement must be reached until ten days before the next local elections, which have been postponed to 15 December 2024 at the latest.

This constitutional revision aims to consider the evolution of the population in New Caledonia and to guarantee the democratic principles of the French Republic. The observance of these principles, which are based directly on the French Constitution, calls for several comments on the current situation in New Caledonia.

Firstly, French democratic principles guarantee that French citizens can choose their representatives through free and fair elections, whether they are organized at local or national level. In this regard, the New Caledonian exception concerning participation in local elections has long been justified by the process of self-determination in which New Caledonia is engaged. However, the legitimacy of the electoral privileges associated with New Caledonian citizenship has been eroded as the population of New Caledonia has grown. The constitutional review initiated by the French Government aims to guarantee better representation of the archipelago’s population within New Caledonia’s institutions.

Secondly, French democratic principles mean that French citizens must be granted the fundamental rights and freedoms that are essential to the democratic process. On this point, the constitutional revision is crucial because it aims to grant the voting rights to a larger proportion of the population of New Caledonia. According to the recent French Senate report, the reform would lead to a 14.5% increase in the electorate. This would involve twelve thousand four hundred and forty-one people born in the archipelago and thirteen thousand four hundred people who have lived in New Caledonia for at least ten years.

The constitutional amendment does not provide for the pure and simple abolition of the privileges attached to New Caledonian citizenship. It merely aims to broaden the electorate for local elections by including French citizens who have been present in New Caledonia for at least ten years. The proposed extension of the personal scope of the voting right in New Caledonia thus appears to be a compromise between, on the one hand, the need to preserve the Kanak minority and, on the other, the French Republic’s democratic principles. While the French Government’s pursuit of such a compromise is understandable considering the situation of this overseas collectivity, some people regret the maintenance of a variable-geometry democracy within the French Republic. As long as French citizens are excluded from the electorate for local elections in New Caledonia, the specific legislation of this territory will not be the expression of the general will of its population.

Dialogue as the only way out of crisis

Organizing a new independence referendum does not seem to be the right solution given the urgency of the situation in New Caledonia. Since the start of the riots, the population of the archipelago has faced serious difficulties in accessing healthcare and food. Several deaths were reported, many buildings were set on fire and numerous barricades are still blocking traffic on the island. Therefore, priority must be given to calming conflicts and restoring order.

For the time being, the only way out of this crisis is – for the French and New Caledonian authorities – to resume dialogue. With this in mind, Emmanuel Macron travelled to New Caledonia, where he assured the local representatives that they would be given time to try and reach an agreement before the text was be put to a vote in Congress. Nevertheless, we can expect strong resistance from the Kanak people, for whom this reform is like forced marginalization.