By Nic Maclellan
Legislation to defer New Caledonia’s provincial elections has been delayed until next week, as parliamentary manoeuvring in Paris highlights divisions over the Bougival Accord, a proposal for a new political statute for the French Pacific dependency.
On Wednesday night (Pacific time), the French National Assembly was supposed to vote on a resolution to delay elections for New Caledonia’s three provincial assemblies and national Congress, until June next year. However, facing amendment of the bill in the French legislature, parties aligned with President Emmanuel Macron refused to vote for their own resolution, instead sending the bill to a joint parliamentary committee.
This manoeuvre delays a vote on the floor of the National Assembly, where the government does not have a majority. Instead, a committee of seven representatives each from the Senate and National Assembly will consider the bill, which will then be reintroduced early next week in an attempt to meet the 2 November deadline for passage.
Pushing back New Caledonia’s local elections until mid-2026 is designed to allow time for the passage of the Bougival Accord through both houses of parliament in Paris. The draft text of this new political statute for New Caledonia was developed during negotiations in France last July. It is designed to replace the 1998 Noumea Accord, the agreement that has governed New Caledonia’s political institutions for more than a quarter of a century.
The Bougival text has support from most political parties in New Caledonia, but was formally rejected by the main independence coalition Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) in August, and has been criticised by pro-independence trade unions and the main Protestant church EPKNC.
The introduction of the draft Bougival Accord into law would include changes to the electoral rolls for New Caledonia’s three provincial assemblies – in the North, South and Loyalty Islands – and the Congress of New Caledonia. These political institutions are currently elected by a restricted electorate of New Caledonian citizens.
Entrenched in the French Constitution in 2007, the residency requirements for citizenship mean that thousands of French nationals living in New Caledonia are not eligible to vote for the local institutions. For more than a decade, pro-French Loyalists have sought to ‘unfreeze’ this electoral body, without success.
If elections proceed as scheduled later in November, they will be based on the existing restricted electorate. If, however, they are delayed and the Bougival Accord is transformed into law, there could be an expanded electoral roll for mid-2026 that could include up to 14,000 extra voters, many of whom will likely vote against independence parties.
Government in trouble
The parliamentary manoeuvring in Paris comes as French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu clings to power, lacking a governing majority in the National Assembly.
Lecornu has served as France’s Overseas Minister (2020-22) and Armed Forces Minister (2022-25), before President Macron appointed him as Prime Minister on 9 September. Lecornu waited three weeks to announce his Council of Ministers, as he desperately tried to negotiate the numbers to govern. But the day after announcing his cabinet, Lecornu resigned, lasting just 27 days in office. It was the third French government to collapse in ten months.
Then, amidst political turmoil in parliament and anger in the streets, President Macron re-appointed his close political ally to the same job just four days later. Since then, Lecornu has appointed a new cabinet and narrowly survived a no confidence motion in the National Assembly, by 289 to 271 votes.
Lecornu has since made a number of changes in his second Council of Ministers, decisions that will impact New Caledonia and other Overseas French dependencies.
A number of hardline, conservative ministers have been appointed to the second cabinet, including Gérald Darmanin as Justice Minister and Laurent Nuñez – a former prefect of police in Paris – as Interior Minister. Another significant change is the removal of Manuel Valls from his position as Overseas Minister, replaced by Naïma Moutchou.
The new Overseas Minister is a member of Horizons, a conservative political party led by former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. First elected in 2017, Moutchou has focussed on law and order and security during her parliamentary career – France Info reports “Naïma Moutchou is known for her strong Right-wing positions within the presidential camp.”
Lecornu’s refusal to reappoint Valls involves domestic politics, as both politicians consider whether to nominate for the next French presidential elections in 2027. But Valls’ absence also has international implications, as the government tries to implement the Bougival Accord this year.
As the key negotiator and architect of the 12 July Bougival deal, Valls was aware of the nuance of differing positions amongst both supporters and opponents of independence in Noumea. Before Lecornu’s decision to dump his Overseas Minister, both Presidents Alcide Ponga of New Caledonia and Moetai Brotherson of French Polynesia had told Islands Business they wanted Valls returned to office, to assist continuity in relations with Paris.
Now, incoming Overseas Minister Naïma Moutchou must hit the ground running, at a time of sharpening differences within and between the pro-independence and Loyalist blocs in New Caledonia.
Differences on the way forward
With the exception of the main independence coalition FLNKS, other parliamentary groups in New Caledonia support the Bougival process. On 15 September, the Congress of New Caledonia voted 39 – 13 to support delaying the elections, with the UC-FLNKS and Nationalists group opposed.
This vote highlights differences on the way forward within the independence camp, between the UC-FLNKS and the Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance (UNI) parliamentary group, comprising the Parti de Libération Kanak (Palika) and Union Progréssiste en Mélanésie (UPM).
UNI leaders issued an open letter on 21 October, arguing that “holding provincial elections in November 2025 could risk reigniting tensions and undermining the calm established by the ADB [Bougival Accord]…UNI asserts that this delay is in no way a manoeuvre related to the electoral rolls, but a safeguard measure to ensure the existence, improvement, and implementation of the Bougival Accord.”
In contrast, Emmanuel Tjibaou – president of Union Calédonienne (UC) and one of two New Caledonian deputies in the French National Assembly – said his party wanted the elections to proceed as scheduled in November.
“For us, the purpose of the provincial elections is to establish a democratic foundation for this debate [around Bougival],” Tjibaou said. “Today we clearly feel that there is a real gap between the aspirations found within our communities and those presented in this political agreement.”
FLNKS President Christian Tein also wrote to French parliamentarians on 12 October, urging them to oppose the delay of the November elections, and to re-open discussions on the decolonisation process.
“This text, seemingly technical, would in reality represent a major political regression”, Tein wrote. “It would unilaterally undermine the decolonisation process initiated by the Noumea Accord and recognised by France, contradicting international law and solemn commitments of the French Republic.”
In September, France’s highest constitutional court confirmed that the Noumea Accord and the restricted electoral roll for local institutions remains legally valid until a replacement statute can be finalised. The court ruled that any modification would require a revision of the French Constitution, not just the passage of an ordinary law.
In Paris, Christian Tein told parliamentarians: “From a legal standpoint, the Constitutional Council in its recent decision confirmed the validity of the ‘frozen’ electoral rolls and its compliance with constitutional principles as well as with the spirit of the Noumea Accord… This decision thus reaffirms that the current electoral framework is legitimate and fully applicable to hold the upcoming provincial elections.”
Adopting Bougival
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his new Overseas Minister want to push through legislation by year’s end, to replace the 1998 Noumea Accord with the new political statute.
In his first address to the nation after his reappointment, Lecornu pledged urgent action on New Caledonia’s Bougival Accord: “The end of the Noumea Accord has left an institutional void that must be filled to allow peace on le Caillou. The Bougival agreement allows for reconciliation. It must be incorporated into the Constitution.”
Overseas Minister Naïma Moutchou told Outremers360 that this Bougival process for New Caledonia is top of her agenda: “There is the immediate urgency of New Caledonia. I will return to this, as it is an absolute priority. What comes next is what we now need to discuss: the constitutional bill and the organic law that will have a major impact on the lives of New Caledonians.”
Even though the FLNKS has repeatedly expressed opposition to the draft agreement, the Bougival text has already been gazetted in the Journal officiel de la République française (JORF, the official government gazette). Last week Moutchou also formally tabled draft constitutional legislation before the Council of Ministers. Both steps are required to start the lengthy process required to transform the draft agreement into law.
In 1999, legislation enacting the Noumea Accord was entrenched in its own unique section of the French Constitution. The Noumea Accord remains in place until a replacement political statute can be entrenched in the constitution – a complex process that requires passage of a bill through the French Senate and National Assembly, a joint sitting of both houses, and then a referendum of New Caledonians to approve the agreement.
While most parliamentary groups support the broad outlines of the Bougival Accord, the formal opposition of the FLNKS has undercut the claim that this is a consensus agreement. Speaking in Paris, UC President Emmanuel Tjibaou stressed: “Today, if you want to endorse a political agreement without the involvement of the liberation movement, it no longer makes sense to frame it in the perspective of decolonisation, without the liberation movement. This is where we ask ourselves about the reality you live in here, and the reality that is ours in our country.”
There’s also uncertainty whether the second Lecornu government will even last the distance, and whether the National Assembly will be dissolved, requiring new French elections before both houses can change the law.
Parliamentary manoeuvres
The first step of the Bougival process is to delay the provincial elections, putting off a democratic poll that will determine the balance of forces between supporters and opponents of independence.
Legislation to delay New Caledonia’s elections went to the French Senate in early October, which voted 299 – 42 to endorse the delay. Palika spokesperson Charles Washetine supported the Senate vote, noting “That’s actually good news, because it fits within the schedule proposed by Bougival, which we as a party support.”
Now the legislation must pass the National Assembly – where numbers are much closer – without any amendment to the bill already approved by the Senate. Timelines are tight: if legislation is not passed in Paris before 2 November, the elections must proceed before 30 November using the existing electoral rolls.
In the National Assembly on 21 October, two deputies from the Left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI) proposed more than 1,500 amendments to the bill. These parliamentary tactics were described as “a scandalous, obstructionist manoeuvre” by National Assembly president Yaël Braun-Pivet, a member of President Macron’s Renaissance party. However a statement from LFI said that “there is no reason today to postpone these elections, except if one wants to push through the Bougival project, which is not subject to consensus.”
The Left-wing coalition also referenced parallels with Lecornu’s actions as Overseas Minister in 2021, when he rammed through New Caledonia’s third referendum on self-determination under the Noumea Accord in the midst of the COVID pandemic (a breach of trust with the FLNKS that still rankles today). LFI’s statement noted the hypocrisy of Lecornu’s changing attitudes over the years: “In 2021, Minister Lecornu maintained the date of the third referendum, despite the context of the COVID pandemic and customary Kanak mourning, on the grounds that in a democracy, ‘elections are held on time’.”
In response to LFI’s amendments, and lacking the numbers on the floor of parliament, Macron’s parliamentary bloc deferred its own resolution on Wednesday, instead sending it to a parliamentary commission for consideration. To meet the 2 November legal deadline, the bill must come back to the National Assembly for adoption next week.
The manoeuvring in Paris leaves New Caledonians in limbo, despite the fraying consensus at home. After months of positive dialogue between independence leaders and pro-French Loyalists this year, tensions are fraying. Loyalist leaders blame the FLNKS for derailing the Bougival process, while Union Calédonienne and other FLNKS members are angered that the Lecornu government is once again pushing through its agenda without forging a consensus on the ground in Noumea.
New Caledonia’s provincial elections have already been delayed for 18 months, with the life of the current government extended well beyond its normal term. Originally scheduled for May 2024, the elections were postponed until December 2024, as New Caledonia was wracked by six months of clashes between French police and Kanak protestors. Then the December 2024 elections were again delayed until 30 November this year. Now, the proposal to once again delay the polls until June 2026 is souring relations within the Congress and the Government of New Caledonia led by President Alcide Ponga.
Pierre Chanel Tutugoro, leader of the UC-FLNKS and Nationalists group in the Congress, said: “This third postponement – based on a political agreement that the FLNKS does not accept – crosses a red line. It turns an exceptional extension into a tool to circumvent the popular will…suffrage cannot be indefinitely postponed at the whim of a contested process.”
“There is no need to add fuel to the fire,” Tutugoro added. “You all know as well as I do that nothing will happen without us,” he said.
