French President Emmanuel Macron said today that it will not allow the result of New Caledonia's latest independence referendum to be called into question, in which citizens voted to remain part of France, although many voters did not participate in the vote, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Macron said he had decided to delay by several weeks a planned reform of electoral law in the French overseas territory, which has seen riots erupt in protest against the move.
The controversial reform aims to give the right to vote to thousands of French citizens who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years. Paris says this is necessary to strengthen democracy on the island, where almost a quarter of the population is of European origin.
Leaders of the indigenous Kanak people, who make up the island's largest community, however, want the reform overturned because they fear it will weaken the power of Kanak voices and make it much more difficult to pass a possible future independence referendum.
According to Macron, the restoration of calm in the troubled French territory is likely to take "a few days" against the backdrop of the current context of ongoing political tension.
"Our goal is to regain full control over the various areas that have been engulfed by disorder and violence," the French president said in a speech in New Caledonia's capital Noumea.