A group in New Caledonia keen to change the voter registration system has called for a large turnout in next month's municipal elections to show that many people cannot vote the September referendum on independence from France.
Voters on New Caledonia's restricted roll line up in 2018 independence referendum Photo: RNZ Walter Zweifel
As part of the Noumea Accord, France restricted New Caledonia's roll for referendums and provincial elections to citizens who arrived and registered before 1998 or who are indigenous Kanaks.
The restrictions were introduced because decades of migration had made the indigenous Kanaks a minority in New Caledonia.
However, the group, One Heart One Vote, which was formed in 2018, wants to undo the changes which limits the voting rights of an estimated 40,000 people to municipal elections and French elections.
The group's head Raphael Romano has told Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes that many voters of Wallisian, French Polynesian and Asian origin are also excluded from the referendum roll.
A case brought by One Heart One Vote to restore voting rights for all is still awaiting a ruling in the European Court of Human Rights.
In the first of three possible referendums under the Noumea Accord in 2018, just under 57 percent voted for the status quo.
