Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Walter Zweifel
New Caledonia's Congress endorsed yet another postponement for the French Pacific territory's crucial provincial elections.
The provincial elections date was already postponed twice: initially scheduled to be held in May 2024, they were then delayed to 15 December 2024, then not later than 30 November 2025.
The new date for provincial elections is once again presented as necessary to provide more time for local politicians.
In a final vote on Monday, parties represented at the 52-seat Congress expressed 39 votes (75 percent) in approval of the postponement.
However, one part of New Caledonia's pro-independence camp, the FLNKS (known at the Congress as UC-FLNKS et Nationalistes caucus), expressed 13 votes against (25 percent).
The debates reflected divisions that surfaced after the conclusion of a new deal on the french territory's political future, struck on 12 July, but still to be implemented, known as the "Bougival" agreement project.
During the Bougival talks, it was envisaged that these conditions should be eased and allow people born in New Caledonia and those residing for more than fifteen years to take part.
The Congress vote is answering a request from the French Senate, which asked for an opinion before it, in turn, tables the election-related bill in the coming weeks in the form of an organic law.
If endorsed by parliament, the new date for local provincial elections should be not later than 28 June 2026.
The next provincial elections would also be held under a new set of conditions of eligibility for voters allowed to take part in the poll.
Under the current conditions, the electoral role is restricted ("frozen") to people who were born there before 1998.
In 2024, an earlier attempt by the French government to change those conditions of eligibility was the main cause for the May 2024 riots.
New Caledonia’s Congress makeup as at 8 August 2025. Photo: Congrès de la Nouvelle-Calédonie
Calls for FLNKS to come back to the table
"We need more time", said Avenir Ensemble leader Philippe Gomès, who on Monday called for a "complement" to the Bougival deal to address some of the expectations from the FLNKS.
"To reintegrate FLNKS in the dialogue process must be regarded as an imperative", he told fellow Congressmen.
The vote is just one of several pieces of legislation related to the implementation of the Bougival Agreement, which was gazetted on 6 September 2025.
The other texts are related to a "fundamental law" (a de facto Constitution) and an organic law for New Caledonia.
A referendum is also in the pipeline in New Caledonia in February 2026) for the French Pacific territory's population to endorse the Bougival deal.
But the FLNKS, even though it took part in and signed the July 2025 talks and negotiations near Paris, later denounced its negotiators' signatures, saying the deal did not reflect the pro-independence movement's struggle for short-term full sovereignty and was a "lure of independence".
All of the other parties that took part in the July talks have since maintained their commitment in favour of the deal's implementation.
This includes pro-France parties, who are in favour of New Caledonia remaining part of France (namely les Loyalistes, le Rassemblement-LR and more moderate pro-France Calédonie ensemble), Wallisian-based Éveil Océanien, but also a moderate pro-independence Union nationale pour l'indépendance (UNI) which itself is a gathering of the UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie) and PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party).
FLNKS members with 'No to Bougival' banners in Nouméa. Photo: FLNKS Indépendantistes et Nationalistes
UPM and PALIKA have de facto split from FLNKS in August 2024, following insurrectional riots that broke out in May 2024, causing 14 dead, thousands of jobless and over two billion Euros in material damage.
The Bougival deal, signed in July 2025, is a blueprint document that envisages changes for New Caledonia's future status, including the creation of a "State of New Caledonia" within the French Republic, as well as a dual nationality (French and New Caledonian) and the gradual transfer of powers from Paris to Nouméa, starting with foreign affairs.
The deal is supposed to take over from the 1998 Nouméa Accord.
It was fostered by then French Minister for Overseas, Manuel Valls, under the chairmanship of French President Emmanuel Macron.
But the French government fell on 8 September 2025 in a Parliament vote of defiance.
Since then, Macron quickly appointed Sébastien Lecornu, a former Minister for Overseas (2020-2022) and Defence Minister (2022-2025), as his new Prime Minister.
Lecornu has since engaged in talks with a number of parties in order to find compromises and form a new government.
In New Caledonia, several parties, including pro-France Government President Alcide Ponga but also pro-independence UNI, have since expressed the hope that Valls should be retained as the next Minister for Overseas.
UNI leader Jean-Pierre Djaïwé told Congress on Monday his pro-independence party did not want to "go against anyone", even though he admitted the Bougival deal was "not perfect".
The independence flag at the FLNKS press conference in Noumea. Photo: AFP / Delphine Mayeur
'We need more time'
But the postponement of local elections, he said, "would allow us to make use of this additional time to go on working on the (Bougival) deal, to improve and to ensure it is accepted by all (...) without any more dead".
Outspoken pro-France Congress member and Southern Province President Sonia Backès said the agreement "has found a point of balance between New Caledonia's two main legitimacies (pro-France and pro-independence) and that to precipitate local elections, in a still unstable context, could entail "chaos".
"To postpone (the elections) means to stabilise New Caledonia's political and social climate".
Another pro-France party, Rassemblement-LR leader Virginie Ruffenach, during debates on Monday, urged FLNKS to "come back to reason and re-join discussions with all the other partners".
Eveil Océanien leader Milakulo Tukumuli was hopeful that "there is still room for us to further discuss" and called for new inclusive talks to be held between all political parties in the coming days.
FLNKS: 'Crossing a red line'
UC-FLNKS caucus president Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro said his party remained open to dialogue.
"FLNKS is not opposed to an agreement. But not at all costs".
"There's no need to add fuel to the fire. You and I know that nothing can be done without us. We need positive signs. And here, today, we've heard positive elements", Tutugoro said on Monday.
However, he maintained that any postponement of the polls based on a political agreement that FLNKS does not recognise is tantamount to "crossing a red line".
He maintained that the election date should be kept to no later than 30 November 2025.
FLNKS is scheduled to hold a meeting of its political bureau on Tuesday.
One of the key items on its agenda will be to assess "how discussions can be engaged" and who would be designated as part of its negotiating team.
