One of the main candidates in the French presidential election in April has called for the opening of New Caledonia's electoral rolls.
Valerie Pecresse of the centre-right Republicans says if elected, she would make New Caledonia a policy priority.
She says she would want accelerated discussions with New Caledonia's leaders to prepare a roadmap on the territory's future status within the French republic by December after last December's rejection of independence.
This would include revisiting the electoral rolls, which are enshrined in the 1998 Noumea Accord and limit participation to indigenous people and long-term residents.
France, Le Cannet, 2022-02-18. Valerie Pecresse, candidate of the Les Republicains (LR) party for the Presidential election of 2022 during her public meeting to present her program. Photo: Eric Dervaux / Hans Lucas
Currently, voters must be New Caledonian citizens, meaning they must have been registered and lived there uninterruptedly since 1998.
Ms Pecresse said this must be readdressed to give a full place to those who have been building the territory for years while having no right to vote.
A leading Republican member of New Caledonia's Congress Virginie Ruffenach has welcomed her outline, saying the current French government doesn't want to deal with the issue until next year.
She said President Emmanuel Macron sometimes writes out cheques to help New Caledonia but avoids its core problems.
More than 96 percent of New Caledonians voted against independence in the December referendum, which was boycotted by Kanaks claiming the referendum was illegitimate.
After the plebiscite, the French overseas minister Sebastien Lecornu called on New Caledonia's political parties to draw up proposals on the territory's new statute within the French republic.
He said he planned to have a new statute drawn up and put to a referendum by June next year.
