Transcript
WALTER ZWEIFEL: There was a record turnout for this historic referendum in New Caledonia with eighty percent of voters taking part. In some places, the turnout was as high as ninety-five percent, which is a figure unseen here before. Now the result has reflected in many ways the party politics of New Caledonia in the sense that the areas that are for independence in the provincial elections also voted for independence in this referendum. This means that the islands, like the Loyalty islands and the north of New Caledonia, voted for independence, while the south - and that is Noumea and its greater area - voted to stay with France. However, there is a notable shift in the Noumea area where usually the pro-independence people scored around ten percent of the votes, and in this referendum, they scored twenty percent of the votes. There's also an interpretation that young people voted in numbers not seen before.
JOHNNY BLADES: With the overall result, does that reflect a bit of a victory for the pro-independence side, being more than some pundits expected before the referendum?
WZ: Oh definitely. The result, while it reflects the party politics and the strength of the different parties, the referendum result is a surprise. Forecasts were that there was going to be something like 60 to 70 or 75 percent rejection (of independence option). However the rejection is only 56 percent. So most commentators here, and politicians as well, have been caught out by this result. It's something that had not been expected. And this of course has resulted in a somewhat subdued atmosphere among the anti-independence people, while the people on the pro-independence side can somehow turn an obvious loss at the polls into a victory. Listening to talkback (radio), people saying 'well we had won', even in the face of the figures saying they had lost.
JB: So does that put paid to some of the calls for the provisional referenda that would follow this to be scrapped? Does this put paid to those calls and maybe give some momentum to the Kanaks' self-determination cause?
WZ: It seems that this result has softened the drive of the anti-independence side to do away with subsequent referendums. You have to keep in mind that the Noumea Accord has provisions for, in total, three referendums in order to complete (New Caledonia's) de-colonisation. And let's not forget that the Noumea Accord says that it is France's obligation to accompany New Caledonia to its full emancipation. So it is in a way a task for France to make sure that New Caledonia can attain full sovereignty. If they were to try to scrap these future referendums, they would have to have the consent of the Kanak people here to begin with. They would have to re-do the Noumea Accord, and that is something that is unlikely to be done because that would also involve changing the French constitution.
JB: So, there are some sort of negotiations underway now that the French Prime Minister is in the territory?
WZ: Yes, the prime minister, Eduoard Philippe arrived here in Noumea overnight, just an hour after the official result was declared. He has been in meetings, but the outcome of those talks are difficult to predict. The French president Emmanuel Macron addressed New Caledonians in a pre-recorded address shortly after polls closed last night, and he said in the next few weeks there were going to be talks on what the path forward is for New Caledonia.
JB: Any signs of unrest or security trouble around this big referendum?
WZ: Yes there has been trouble overnight. A notorious place is St Louis on the southern side of Noumea where some young people tried to apparently throw stones at vehicles, prompting police to close the road. It's been closed all night, and also into the day, towards midday. We'll have to see how this is going to be resolved. The violence and this confrontation down there is something of a pattern for that region. It is not a reflection at all of the vote yesterday. It was a peaceful election that did not somehow foreshadow that there was going to be this violence.
