Two separate demonstrations brought together independentists and non-independentists in Nouméa. Demonstrations aimed to demand the withdrawal of the constitutional bill providing for the unfreezing of the electorate for the provincial elections on the pro-independence side.
The bill aims to open the electorate in provincial elections to people who have resided in New Caledonia for at least ten years. The last demonstrations of this scale date back to the 1980s, a decade marked by a quasi-civil war in the archipelago, writes Frédérique Poirier-Séguier, a former French foreign minister. In May 1983, the arrival of Secretary of State for the French Overseas Territories Georges Lemoine brought more than 30,000 people into the streets. Since then, the demonstrations have very exceptionally reached 25,000, Poirieri-Seymour says. The partial unfreezes of the voters could call into question the political balance between independence andnon-independence, he adds.