France imposes curfew in New Caledonia after unrest over voting reform

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00:00Next let's bring you some news from the French overseas territory of New

00:04Caledonia. Today authorities there have sent more police out onto the streets

00:08and shut the International Airport as well as imposed a curfew in the capital.

00:13This after protests turned violent yesterday. At issue is a plan by the

00:18government here in Paris to change New Caledonia's voting rules, a move that

00:23local leaders fear will dilute the power of the indigenous populations there. To

00:29tell us a bit more Mark Perelman our French politics editor is with me and

00:32Mark just let's start with that then why have we seen so much unrest over the

00:37past 24 hours in New Caledonia? Well because of this proposed constitutional

00:41change led by the government that's before the National Assembly today it has

00:48already been endorsed by the Senate and for a constitution to be revived you

00:53need both chambers of Parliament to convene together and vote formally. This

00:59was the plan however there is as you pointed out opposition by the native

01:06population known as the Canucks because this would change essentially the

01:12electoral body for upcoming provincial elections. There's a very specific system

01:18in New Caledonia not everyone can vote because the electoral body was frozen

01:25quote-unquote back in 2007 by then President Jacques Chirac because he knew

01:31there were tensions between the native population and those who came later on

01:37and he wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be any problem because there

01:40were peace negotiations after violent episodes in the past. Now the government

01:45says we have to change that because it's not fair anymore so we want to enlarge

01:50the body of those who are allowed to vote and there was there is a new rule

01:55that would take hold now whereby if you've been a resident for 10 years you

02:00will be able to vote in those upcoming provincial elections however there's

02:05strong opposition because the native population at least some militant groups

02:10feel that this is a way for France to keep control of the territory and so

02:17this is why you have those scenes of violence and we've seen movements by the

02:24President, the Prime Minister who spoke before the National Assembly to say okay

02:28we will not rush through this constitutional reform I'm inviting

02:34everyone to come to Paris to sit down to see if we can calm the situation down.

02:39And what is the government trying to do for the moment?

02:41Well trying to earn some time to avoid further violence and saying you know we

02:48don't want to impose our will on the populations there we need to keep the

02:54situation quiet. The problem is this is a rather technical issue but it's a

03:01symbolic issue. Why? Because it's an overseas territory there were three

03:07referendums conducted in recent years to decide whether New Caledonia should

03:13remain part of France or not. In each case the yes to remain part of France

03:18won however the last vote there was a really very strong abstention because

03:25the native population didn't accept the terms of the referendum so there is

03:29clearly a very sensitive issue of whether New Caledonia should continue to

03:35be a part of France and if so on what terms and the government hasn't been

03:39able to find a compromise to grant some autonomy what degree of autonomy and so

03:45this is why it remains a very very fraught situation there and the

03:50government is hoping that it can calm the situation by having all the

03:55different factions come to Paris for discussions but there's no guarantee all

04:01of them will agree and that this will die down in the coming hours or days.

04:04Mark Perelman, thank you.

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