A law professor in Noumea says New Caledonia is now faced with a period of high uncertainty, be it political, economic or institutional.
Mathias Chauchat says referendum voters were misled to believe that with yesterday's no vote, the provisions of the 1998 Noumea Accord had become void.
Photo: Theo Rouby / AFP
The Noumea Accord lapsed with yesterday's third referendum on full sovereingty.
However, Mr Chauchat says even after three no votes, the structures created by the Noumea Accord remain in place because their irreversibility is enshrined in the French constitution.
He says the no campaign was selling its supporters a dream of being able to change them like an organic law as it is possible in all other French overseas departments and territories.
But Mr Chauchat says to change Accord provisions, there first needs to be a 60 percent majority in both the National Assembly and the Senate to alter the constitution, which in the current political configuration is difficult.
He says the provisions cover the entire political construct, including the make-up of the electoral roll, of the assemblies and the collegial government as well as the economic re-balancing within the territory.
Mr Chauchat says the French government may claim the end of the Accord makes it obsolete, but he says such a bid will end up in France's Constitutional Court, where the pro-independence parties will continue their fight for respect of the Accord.
As a result, he says, New Caledonia is now faced with instability, particularly over plans to open the electoral roll to more recent arrivals from France, who under the Noumea Accord cannot vote in provincial elections.