NOUMEA, New Caledonia - Voters in the French island of New Caledonia overwhelmingly chose to stay in France, in a referendum boycotted by pro-independence forces and closely watched around the South Pacific.
French President Emmanuel Macron praised the result as a resounding confirmation of France's role in the Indo-Pacific and announced negotiations on the territory's future status. Separatist activists expressed dismay or resignation.
They had urged a delay in the vote because of the coronaviruses and were angry over what they felt were French government efforts to sway the campaign. They asked their supporters to stay away from voting stations.
The official results showed that 96 percent of those who took part chose to stay in France. The total turnout was less than 44 percent - barely half of the numbers that showed up in a previous independence referendum last year, where support for breaking away was 46.7 percent.
We are French tonight, and we will stay that way. Sonia Backes, president of the Southern Province region, said it was no longer negotiable.
The U.N. and regional powers monitored the vote amid global efforts to decolonization and growing Chinese influence in the region. New Caledonia, colonized by Napoleon's nephew in the 19th century, is a vast archipelago of about 270,000 people east of Australia that is 10 time zones ahead of Paris and hosts a French military base.
Macron said today that France is more beautiful because New Caledonia decided to stay.
He did not address the boycott. Macron pledged to respect all Caledonians, including those who voted to leave, despite the fact that the electorate remains deeply divided.
Sunday's vote was the third and last in a long process aimed at settling tensions between native Kanaks seeking independence and those who want the territory to remain part of France.
The process does not end with the last referendum. The state, separatists and non-separatists now have 18 months to negotiate a new status for the territory and its institutions within France.
FLNKS, the pro-independence party, said it won't start negotiating until it has time to analyze next steps, and threatened to seek international recourse to invalidate the results.
Jean-Philippe Tjibaou, son of a slain separatist leader, told the public broadcaster France-Info that the Kanak people's right to self-determination won't end Sunday night or Monday morning. He said from a city that voted for independence 100 percent in the last two referendums, but boycotted Sunday's vote, We pursued the work of our elders. Our children will pursue it after us. A tropical storm warning slowed enthusiasm for the referendum. Lines ran out of some polling stations as winds whipped palm trees lining the streets of the regional capital, Noumea. Turnout at others was barely a trickle.
The boycott call was unusually calm, though the state deployed 1,750 police and security forces in case of unrest.
While support for a yes vote seemed to be growing, the region's first coronavirus outbreak in September threw the political debate into disarray. Indigenous groups felt they couldn't campaign out of respect for their dead, and demanded that the referendum be postponed. But pro-France groups insist that it should take place as scheduled to end uncertainty over New Caledonia's future and strengthen its economic prospects.
The vote to stay French is a boost for Macron both domestically - where he's expected to face a tough challenge from far-right nationalists in April's presidential election and internationally.
France is trying to cement its presence in the Indo-Pacific region after it lost a multibillion-dollar submarine contract because of a partnership Australia formed with the United States and Britain. The secretly negotiated submarine project, announced in September and aimed at countering Chinese ambitions in the region, was a huge blow to France.
Caroline Gravelat of the University of New Caledonia said that some countries in the region could appreciate France's balanced posture in what you could call a Chinese-American cold war.