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France-New Caledonia: Proponents of independence ‘do not recognize legitimacy’ of referendum

France-New Caledonia: Proponents of independence ‘do not recognize legitimacy’ of referendum

Supporters of New Caledonia’s independence from France, who had called on the public not to take part in the referendum held yesterday, Sunday, in the archipelago, which was won by supporters of his stay in France, announced today that they do not recognize either the “legality” or the “validity” of the vote.

Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. their.

In this referendum, which recorded a record abstention after the supporters of independence called for non-participation in the vote and is the third and last scheduled to be held under the Noumea agreement of 1998, he declared his camp “no” to independence a sweeping victory. , which won 96.49% of the vote, compared to just 3.51% of its “yes” supporters in independence, with blank and invalid ballots at 2.99%.

The extent of this result must be taken into account in the light of a low turnout (43.90%) in this referendum, compared to the two previous ones, which were won in November 2018 and October 2020 by its supporters. “no” to independence, with 56.7% and 53.3% respectively.

“The road to dialogue has been blocked by the stubbornness of a French government unable to reconcile its geostrategic interests in the Pacific with its obligation to decolonize our country,” the independence supporters said.

For the FLNKS party and the nationalists “this referendum is not in line with the spirit and letter of the Noumea agreement, the decolonization process and it is also not in line with the UN decisions, which included New Caledonia in the list of countries to be decolonized “.

French Overseas Minister Sebastian Lecorny, on the other hand, said the legal value of the referendum was “complete” despite the very low turnout. “You have not been obliged to take part in the vote” and “there is no quorum in the texts of the Noumea agreement”, he argued today in statements made to France Inter.

In the same vein, the chairman of the referendum control committee, Francis Lamy, said that the abstention “does not affect the validity or the sincerity of the referendum”. The committee did not find “any significant irregularities” during the vote, he also said in a press conference he gave to Noumea.

Source: AMPE

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Source From: Capital