The authorities in New Caledonia, a semiautonomous French territory within the South Pacific, put a curfew in place on Tuesday and banned all public gatherings after protests in opposition to a proposed constitutional change turned violent in a single day.
France’s Excessive Fee of the Republic in New Caledonia introduced on Tuesday {that a} “large mobilization” of safety and protection forces has been despatched to quell the protests. As well as, a curfew was imposed within the capital, Noumea, for Tuesday night time, and all public gatherings had been banned together with the sale of alcohol and the transportation of weapons, the Excessive Fee mentioned.
The most recent protests began on Monday, earlier than a scheduled Tuesday vote within the French Parliament on a change to New Caledonia’s Structure that may increase French residents’ eligibility to vote in provincial elections. Some pro-independence activists within the territory worry the modification would water down their motion.
Many law enforcement officials had been injured within the unrest, and retailers, pharmacies, supermarkets and automotive sellers within the capital and a few outlying areas sustained harm, the fee mentioned on Tuesday morning. A minimum of 36 individuals have been arrested, the fee mentioned.
Tensions had been constructing for a number of weeks over the proposed constitutional change. Since 2007, the territory’s voter rolls have been successfully frozen, with solely those that had been listed in 1998 eligible to vote in subsequent elections.
The modification would give voting rights to all French residents who’ve lived within the territory for 10 years, successfully rising the rolls by about 20,000 to 25,000 individuals, in accordance with Adrian Muckle, a senior lecturer in historical past at Victoria College of Wellington in New Zealand who’s an skilled on New Caledonia. New Caledonia has a inhabitants of about 300,000.
This can be a growing story.
