New Caledonia rejects independence in final vote amid boycott

Provisional outcomes revealed by French authorities confirmed help for a "no" to independence was at 96.5%, whereas turnout stood at 43.9%. Sunday's vote, the third and final poll on the problem, follows two earlier polls in 2018 and 2020 in which the "no" vote received 57% and 53% respectively.

New Caledonia's congress president, Roch Wamytan, a pro-independence chief, mentioned he regretted the French authorities had rejected their name to postpone the third referendum to September 2023 out of respect for native mourning customs."This referendum, for us, is not the third referendum. We consider that there are only two legitimate referendums. 2018 and 2020. This referendum is the referendum of the French state, not ours," he mentioned on Franceinfo radio.Analysts worry a "no" vote will anger independence supporters, creating instability."The worst of scenarios? A "no" vote which bans independence, but whose legitimacy is rejected by the Kanaks via a massive abstention rate motivated by Paris's refusal to postpone the vote," François Heisbourg, an analyst for the IISS think-tank, mentioned on Twitter.One of 5 island territories spanning the Indo-Pacific held by France, New Caledonia is the centerpiece of Macron's plan to extend its affect in the Pacific.Sunday's vote is the third prescribed by a deal hammered out a decade after talks on the island's future started in 1988, and which referred to as for a series of independence referendums.Fighting erupted in the Nineteen Eighties in the nickel-rich territory, 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) east of Australia and 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) from France, between supporters of independence and people who wished to remain French.