The last time provincial elections were held in New Caledonia was in 2019. Photo: RNZ Walter Zweifel
New Caledonia's political landscape is already changing in preparation for the French Pacific territory's looming provincial elections, set to be held no later than 28 June.
The date seems to be the most likely choice for the crucial elections, which will determine not only the members of New Caledonia's three provincial assemblies ( \North, South and the Loyalty Islands), but also, by way of trickle-down effect, the members of the Congress (New Caledonia's Parliament), the members of its "collegial" government and its future president.
The last time provincial elections were held in New Caledonia was in 2019.
The last time it was re-scheduled to be held no later than Sunday 28 June 2026, France's Constitutional Council warned it would no longer tolerate more postponements.
The French government's latest bid to have a constitutional amendment related to New Caledonia endorsed was flatly rejected on 2 April by the French Lower House, the National Assembly.
Following the rejection, the underlying documents described as the result of talks held in July 2025 and January 2026, which included a proposed new "Bougival-Elysée-Oudinot" pathway proposing the creation of a "State of New Caledonia" within the French realm and an associated New Caledonian "nationality", also came to a standstill.
Since then, French Prime minister Sébastien Lecornu has launched a fresh series of talks with New Caledonia's political stakeholders, during hours-long video sessions hosted in Nouméa at the French High Commission.
The latest meeting took place on Tuesday between Lecornu in Paris and New Caledonia's representatives from Nouméa via video conference.
This was the first time that all political stakeholders (including those for New Caledonia's independence and those who want the French Pacific territory to remain part of France) sat at the same table since the so-called "Bougival" talks in the outskirts of Paris in July 2025.
But it emerged, even though participants were asked not to communicate, that the two most sensitive items on the agenda remained unanswered.
These were the exact date of the elections and whether there was an agreement on how restrictions would be modified and possibly eased regarding voters eligibility.
As part of the implementation of the Nouméa Accord (1998), and as a temporary measure, it was decided that only voters born in New Caledonia and those residing before 1998 would be allowed to cast their vote for these local elections.
This was originally designed to avert any risk of a possible "dilution" of the indigenous Kanak votes.
During the latest talks, the difficult question of the "frozen" electoral roll and a possible easing of conditions to open the vote to people born or residing at least for the past fifteen years was once again brought up.
The "native" category concerned over 10,000 people (out of a total of about 37,000 people who do not qualify to vote on the provincial elections "special list").
This represents about 17 percent of the "general" list of 218,000 registered voters in New Caledonia.
If no agreement was found before the elections, then they would be held under the current configuration, that is with a still restricted ("frozen") electoral roll.
Lecornu said the talks were intended to continue, either in plenary (all parties at the same time) or in "bilateral" (party-to-government) mode.
New Caledonia’s Congress latest modification as at 28 April 2026. Photo: Congrès de la Nouvelle-Calédonie
