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The referendum is part of a carefully negotiated decolonization plan. The Noumea accord, adopted in 1998, aimed to end the devastating conflict between the indigenous Canaks of New Caledonia, the leading advocates of independence, and the descendants of European settlers, known as the ‘Saldeans’.
The culmination of the violence that ravaged the archipelago in the 1990s was marked by a bloody hostage drama in 1988, in which 19 separatists and six members of the police and special forces were killed.
The coronavirus pandemic has little effect on voting in New Caledonia, as COVID-19 has not spread in this remote area. 294 polling stations opened on Sunday at 8pm local time (Lithuanian midnight) and will be open until 6pm (10am Lithuanian time).
This is the second vote on independence in New Caledonia. During the plebiscite held in 2018, 56.7 percent. voters chose to keep the territory as part of France.
However, these results marked a strengthening of the positions of the defenders of independence, so this side hopes that this time the balance will turn to the other side.
By noon Sunday, voter turnout had reached 49 percent. – this is a few percentage points more than at the same stage of the 2018 vote. Voters reportedly had to wait a few hours at some polling stations in the capital Numbai.
Political observers say the idea of independence is unlikely to win a majority of the vote, although no population polls have been conducted.
If independence were renounced, there would still be the possibility of another plebiscite by 2022, if requested by at least a third of local parliamentarians.
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