Authorities in New Caledonia, a semi-autonomous French territory in the South Pacific, imposed a curfew on Tuesday and banned all public gatherings after protests against a proposed constitutional change turned violent overnight.
The High Commissioner of the Republic of France in New Caledonia announced on Tuesday that a “massive mobilization” of security and defense forces had been sent to quell the protests. In addition, a curfew was imposed in the capital, Nouméa, for Tuesday night and all public gatherings were banned, as well as the sale of alcohol and the transportation of weapons, the High Commissioner said.
The latest protests began on Monday, ahead of a vote scheduled for Tuesday in the French Parliament on a change to New Caledonia’s constitution that would expand the eligibility of French citizens to vote in provincial elections. Some independence activists in the territory fear that the amendment will dilute their movement.
Many police officers were injured in the unrest and shops, pharmacies, supermarkets and car dealerships in the capital and some outlying areas were damaged, the commission reported Tuesday morning. At least 36 people have been arrested, the commission said.
Tensions had been rising for several weeks over the proposed constitutional change. Since 2007, the territory’s voter rolls have been effectively frozen, with only those who were on the list in 1998 eligible to vote in subsequent elections.
The amendment would grant voting rights to all French citizens who have lived in the territory for 10 years, effectively increasing the rolls by between 20,000 and 25,000 people, according to Adrian Muckle, a senior lecturer in history at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, who He is an expert on New Caledonia. New Caledonia has a population of around 300,000 inhabitants.
This is a developing story.