The date was endorsed on Monday by the local government.
The poll, held every five years, simultaneously renews the makeup of New Caledonia’s three provincial assemblies — North, South, and Loyalty Islands — with a trickle down effect also on New Caledonia’s 54-seat territorial Congress.
In turn, this also affects, through a mechanism of proportionality, the makeup of the local government, which has to reflect the political parties’ representation in the Congress.
The 2009 poll is to usher the third legislature after the implementation of the autonomy Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998 between pro-independence, pro-French parties and the French State.
The accord sets out guidelines and a roadmap for a gradual transfer of powers from metropolitan France to local authorities.
It also envisages a referendum on self-determination between 2014 and 2018.
Ahead of the poll, over the past few months, New Caledonia’s political climate has been marked by increasing rifts within the pro-French camp, where the ruling Avenir Ensemble, or Future Together, party has de facto split as a result of differences between their leaders.
Avenir Ensemble pillar and New Caledonia’s Government President Harold Martin have last year struck a “majority agreement” with former foes of the historic pro-French Rassemblement-UMP, headed by Pierre Frogier.
The deal represented a sort of power sharing for key positions in government and public institutions and enterprises.
But another founder of Avenir Ensemble, Philippe Gomès, has since broken away and formed his own party, Calédonie Ensemble.
Meanwhile, within the pro-independence camp, Union Calédonienne and PALIKA, or Kanak Liberation Party, the main components of the FLNKS, or the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front, have endeavored to put an end to years of internal divisions and to present a relatively united front head of the May elections.
Under the Nouméa Accord, both pro-French and pro-independence parties are compelled to work together in the same government.
KagES PTA meeting today
(KagES) — Kagman Elementary School’s monthly PTA meeting will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 7, in the KagES cafeteria starting at 6:30 p.m.
Parents and guardians are requested to find time to attend the meeting, which will discuss important updates on special events, activities and assessment for the school year 2008-2009.
