“The conditions of organization of the vote have altered the sincerity of the consultation”, according to the Kanak liberation party. No independence took it away during the last referendum on the self-determination of the archipelago.
Le Monde with AFP
The Palika, one of the main independent movements of New Caledonia, announced on Thursday, December 23, have filed an appeal before the Council of State to challenge the referendum of 12 December on the self-determination of the French archipelago.
The Spokesperson for the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika), Charles Wasketin, announced that his movement and other independent parties gathered within the National Union for Independence (UNI) had formulated on Wednesday, an appeal against the result of the third and final referendum provided for by the 1998 Nouméa agreements.
“The conditions of organization of the vote have altered the sincerity of the consultation”, considers Mr. Wasketine. Other queries still should be formulated “in the coming days”, again before the Council of State, then before the international bodies, he assured.
Refusal to discuss with the Minister of Overseas
invoking a period of mourning because of the CIVID-19 epidemic that has made 280 deaths since September, mostly kanaks, and the impossibility they have campaigned, the independence had asked for the postponement of the vote.
In the face of the refusal of the State, they had called for the non-participation of their activists and sympathizers. On December 12, it was not the independence that took it with 96.50% of the votes but with a free fall participation: 43.87% against 85.69% at the referendum of 2020.
The Palika also announced that it did not feel held by the timetable provided by the Minister of Overseas, Sébastien Lecornu, which provides for a transition period initiated on December 13 and leading to a project referendum in June 2023 who would specify the future status of the territory. “Our horizon is May 2024 and the end of the mandat of the Congress,” said Jean-Pierre Djaïwé (Uni-Palika).
In the aftermath of the poll, the independence had already announced that they would refuse to discuss any new status other than independence and that these discussions could not take place before the presidential election of April 2022.