Voters in New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific, are set to return to the polls on June 28, 2026, for provincial elections that will reshape local power after years of political and economic turmoil.
About 192,000 eligible voters have been called to vote in the first provincial election since 2019—an election that was postponed three times in a territory still marked by the 2024 riots and an economy that has fallen back to its 2010 level, according to AFP.
The vote will be held simultaneously across three provinces—South, North, and the Loyalty Islands—electing 76 provincial councilors: 40 in the South, 22 in the North, and 14 in the Loyalty Islands. Those provincial assemblies then select members of the Congress, which forms the local government. The results are expected to reset the balance between pro-France “loyalists” and independence forces and determine who will represent the territory in future talks over New Caledonia’s political status.
A frozen voter roll dating to 1998, and a partial opening that satisfies no one
The election is being organized under the Nouméa Accord framework because no new constitutional agreement has been reached. Under that system, the electorate remains effectively frozen at 1998: only people who lived in New Caledonia at that time with 10 years of residency—or those with at least one parent meeting those conditions—are allowed to vote.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has proposed expanding the roll to include “natives”—about 11,000 people born in the territory who do not meet the current criteria—as well as spouses of New Caledonians. The article describes that limited opening as leaving both independence and non-independence camps dissatisfied.
A broader reform was laid out in the Bougival agreement reached in July 2025, but the pro-independence FLNKS rejected it. France’s National Assembly then refused to write it into the Constitution on April 2. The French Senate, for its part, adopted a constitutional reform that included creating a “State of New Caledonia” with its own nationality and set a deadline of no later than December 20, 2026, for holding the election. Ultimately, June 28 was chosen, within the existing institutional framework.
2,400 security personnel deployed as campaigning continues in the Loyalty Islands
Organizers are planning the vote under the shadow of the 2024 unrest. Around 2,400 law enforcement personnel—including 1,120 mobile gendarmes—are positioned across the archipelago through mid-July.
Authorities say urban violence has dropped sharply: 700 incidents were recorded in the first five months of 2026, compared with 1,200 over the same period a year earlier, according to the High Commission of the Republic, the French state’s top local administration.
On the ground, campaigning is continuing up to the final days. In Lifou in the Loyalty Islands, the UC-FLNKS list drew about 20 people Saturday evening in the Hapetra tribe. “There is an arm-wrestling match being fought, there is a battle here, there is a historic appointment waiting for us, waiting for the Kanak people,” said Pierre Qaeze, a candidate on the list. “We do not have the right to scatter our votes.” Candidates are framing the election as a decisive moment for the future of the Loyalty Islands and the Kanak people—far beyond a simple reshuffling of provincial assemblies.
