Roch Wamytan replaced – major shift in New Caledonia’s parliament

Wamitan

analyze – New Caledonia has undergone significant changes in its parliament, with its president having been Rochi Vamitanwas replaced due to unexpected voting results.

For the first time in the short history of the New Caledonian Parliament (established in 1999 as part of the implementation of the self-governing Noumea Accord), a woman is the President of the local parliament.

Veylma Falaeo, 42, is from the small political party Oceania Awakening, which has been called the “kingmaker party” since its founding in 2019.

Eveil Océanien (EO) has only three members in Congress.

But independent parties within the Congress have long relied on the small group’s three seats to secure a Congress majority.

The first warning sign came on Wednesday when Vaima Muliava of Eveil Océanien resigned from her local government post in order to be allowed to sit in Congress and vote again, replacing a more pro-independence electoral commission member, thus moving the three-member electoral commission closer to the pro-French camp.

While in the past, the EO has allowed the pro-independence faction to reign supreme in the Congress party, it looks like this time, the EO’s candidate, Veylma Falaeo, will gain support from the loyalist, anti-independence faction, thus swinging the slim majority in their favour.

One vote difference

This became a reality in the second round of voting on Thursday, when the pro-French parties “Royalists”, “Left Alliance” and “Together Caledonian Party” decided to abandon their two presidential candidates and vote for the EO’s candidate, bringing the total number of votes in favor of Farao to 28.

Vamitan received 26 votes from the independence camp.

If one vote changes camp, the result will become a 27-27 tie, in which case Vamithan will continue to be the Congress president as he is the oldest candidate (71 years).

Even the new president later admitted to local media that her election was completely unexpected and that she had only minutes to write her first speech minutes after her unexpected election.

She told Parliament that this was a recognition of the key role played by the Oceania Alliance Party (which was founded in 2019 and whose voter base consists mainly of significant groups from the neighbouring Wallis and Futuna Islands) in advocating a “middle way” that supports neither independence nor France, opposing inter-bloc logic.

However, on the pro-French side, most leaders and MPs said they had a “duty” and “obligation” to remove Vamitan.

In a joint statement late Thursday, the Loyalists, Alliance and Caledonian Commons said they were “pleased to see the end of Roque Wamitan’s term as President of the National Assembly of New Caledonia”.

Wamytan has clear goals

The same document also states that they believe that his presidency has “reached a point of no return” and that (Wamitan) is no longer able to preside over (Congress) which is supposed to represent all New Caledonians.

“Over the past year, the New Caledonian Congress has seen unacceptable behavior by its president,” the pro-Franco party explained.

Chairman of the Congress of People’s Representatives Virginie Rufenakh noted that in April 2024, the Parliaments of New Caledonia and Azerbaijan signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

The agreement was signed on behalf of the Wamitan Party by Omayra Naisseline, a member of the Independent (and Caledonian Alliance) wing of the Congress Party at the time, sparking an outcry from members of other political parties who said they had never been consulted on the document.

When the agreement was signed, the flag that had originally represented the National Assembly of New Caledonia on the table was replaced by the flag of the Kanak National Front.

As other contributing factors, the Allegiance coalition also cited the close relationship between the Caledonian Union (UC, one of the more radical components of the FN’s pro-independence platform) and the controversial CCAT (Field Action Coordination Team).

CCAT was founded by the University of Cologne in October 2023 and later played a major role in the protest movement that led to the deadly riots that broke out on May 12, 2024, leaving 11 people dead, at least 20,000 homeless, and total damage estimated at around 2.2 billion euros.

The joint statement also condemned Vamitan’s “guilty silence in the face of the ongoing violence since May 13.”

“So we voted for Ms. Fallaeo because we believe that despite our differences we can work together,” Philippe Dunoyer, a member of the Caledonian choir, told local media after the suspenseful vote.

“Cast a vote of hope”

He praised the bipartisan alliance and said: “This is also a vote of hope so that new political dynamics can emerge.”

Caucus leaders Jean-Pierre Jaïvi (UNI-FLNKS) and Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro (UCL-FLNKS) acknowledged their group’s defeat.

They also noted that there had been signs that this rival coalition was forming (such as Mulyawa resigning from the government the day before the vote), but in the end, it was a victory for democracy.

“We cannot deal with this crisis alone, we need the (French) government… Whether the Congress president is for independence or against independence, the top priority is the catastrophic situation in our country,” Jaiwi told the media after voting.

Vamithan left the Congress after being removed from his seat and did not make any statement.

The change of president of the General Assembly also comes at a critical time, as the pro-independence platform FLNKS will hold a major conference this weekend (August 31-September 1), at which the UC has announced its intention to include CCAT in the umbrella organization and that its leader Christian Théin (currently in prison in Mulhouse, France, awaiting trial on suspicion of criminal conspiracy) will become president of the FLNKS.

Two pro-independence FLNKS member parties, the moderate Kanak Liberation Party (PALIKA) and the Melanesian Union Progressive Party (UPM), announced in a communique on Wednesday that they would not attend the weekend meeting.