--- title: "New Caledonia Votes for the First Time Since 2019, Two Years After Deadly Unrest" description: "Voters in New Caledonia, the French Pacific territory shaken by fatal riots two years ago, went to the polls Sunday in long-delayed provincial elections that will shape its government and feed directly into a deferred reckoning over its future with — or apart from — France." category: "World" category_url: https://herald.la/category/world author: "Naomi Fields" published: 2026-06-28T07:38:36.000Z updated: 2026-06-28T07:38:36.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/new-caledonia-votes-for-the-first-time-since-2019-two-years-after-deadly-unrest tags: ["New Caledonia", "France", "Pacific", "Kanak", "independence", "elections"] --- # New Caledonia Votes for the First Time Since 2019, Two Years After Deadly Unrest Voters in New Caledonia, the French Pacific territory shaken by fatal riots two years ago, went to the polls Sunday in long-delayed provincial elections that will shape its government and feed directly into a deferred reckoning over its future with — or apart from — France. New Caledonia held provincial elections on Sunday for the first time since 2019 — a vote delayed for years by the deadliest unrest the French territory has seen in decades, and one whose result will help decide how its long-running independence question is settled. ## A heavily guarded vote Roughly 192,000 registered voters were eligible to elect 76 councillors across the territory's three provincial assemblies — South, North and the Loyalty Islands — with 54 of those seats also filling the territorial Congress, the main legislative body, [Al Jazeera reported](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/28/polls-open-in-new-caledonias-first-provincial-elections-since-2019). About 2,500 police officers were deployed to secure polling, a measure of how fresh the tensions remain. ## Why the vote was delayed The election should have been held in 2024, but that spring New Caledonia erupted in violence. The trigger was a proposed French constitutional change that would have expanded the provincial electorate to residents of at least 10 years — "unfreezing" voter rolls that had been locked since the 1998 Nouméa Accord to protect the political weight of the Indigenous Kanak population. Kanak groups and the pro-independence FLNKS coalition argued the change would dilute their vote and close off the path to sovereignty. The unrest that followed killed at least 14 people, according to accounts compiled from French and international reporting, and prompted a state of emergency. France eventually withdrew the constitutional reform later in 2024. Lawmakers later approved a narrower change, adding more than 10,000 people born in the territory after 1998 to the rolls, [Radio New Zealand reported](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/pacific/625554/new-caledonia-s-political-parties-make-final-pitch-to-voters-before-campaigning-ends) — a step pro-independence parties said was made without their consent. ## Two visions of the future The vote lands amid an unresolved debate over independence. Pro-independence Kanak parties want a rapid path to full sovereignty and see a strong provincial showing as leverage in talks with Paris. Loyalist parties, which favor remaining French, point to three referendums held under the Nouméa Accord — in 2018, 2020 and 2021 — that all rejected independence, though pro-independence groups boycotted the 2021 vote, held during the pandemic, and dispute its legitimacy. France has floated ideas for the territory's future status short of full independence, including a proposed "State of New Caledonia" within the French framework, but no agreement has been finalized, [Al Jazeera noted](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/28/polls-open-in-new-caledonias-first-provincial-elections-since-2019). French officials have signaled that fresh status negotiations will follow the election. ## Why it matters beyond the Pacific New Caledonia, home to about 270,000 people — a large share of them Kanak — holds an estimated fifth to a third of the world's known nickel reserves, a metal central to stainless steel and electric-vehicle batteries, [Euronews reported](https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/07/02/a-year-after-new-caledonias-deadly-riots-france-hosts-summit-on-territorys-future). That makes the political fate of a small Pacific archipelago a matter of strategic interest well beyond its shores. The Congress that emerges from Sunday's vote will sit down to negotiate that future almost immediately. ## Sources - [Polls open in New Caledonia's first provincial elections since 2019](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/28/polls-open-in-new-caledonias-first-provincial-elections-since-2019) - [New Caledonia's political parties make final pitch to voters before campaigning ends](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/pacific/625554/new-caledonia-s-political-parties-make-final-pitch-to-voters-before-campaigning-ends) - [A year after New Caledonia's deadly riots, France hosts summit on territory's future](https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/07/02/a-year-after-new-caledonias-deadly-riots-france-hosts-summit-on-territorys-future)