France suspends electoral reform in New Caledonia – POLITICO

France will postpone its controversial electoral reform in New Caledonia, which sparked deadly unrest on the overseas island territory last month, the French president said at a press conference on Wednesday.

President Emmanuel Macron said the constitutional change announced in May that would give French citizens living in New Caledonia for over a decade the right to vote in local elections would be “suspended” to allow “a return to order”.

In reality, however, the dissolution of the French parliament after Macron called new elections in response to his party’s disappointing result in last week’s EU elections means that the reform cannot be implemented until a new legislature is elected.

The bill sparked weeks of unrest in the South Pacific archipelago, more than 15,000 kilometers from the French mainland, leaving at least eight people dead and causing damage amounting to one billion euros.

Many of the indigenous Kanak, who make up about 40 percent of the area’s population, have long resented Paris’ rule and oppose the extension of the franchise to French settlers, fearing the move would dash their hopes for independence.