Overview
- Voting took place on Sunday, June 28, 2026, with polls opening at 8 a.m. local time and roughly 2,500 police deployed to secure and monitor polling stations.
- Authorities added about 10,500 people to the electoral roll in a partial 'unfreezing' approved in May, bringing eligible voters to about 192,584 while roughly 27,000 residents remain excluded from these provincial contests.
- The election will determine who sits in the 54-member Congress, a body that chooses the local government and will represent New Caledonia in future talks with Paris over independence or continued ties with France.
- The vote follows deadly unrest in May 2024 that left 14 people dead and caused about €2 billion in damage, an episode that still weighs on the economy through lost jobs, damaged businesses, and repairs to key infrastructure.
- Paris has warned about possible foreign digital interference and French authorities are investigating recent attacks on telecoms infrastructure; final results are being counted and will set the next phase of negotiations and local governance.