Around 40,000 demonstrators, half of them loyal to France, the other half pro-independence protesters, took to the streets in Nouméa on Saturday. The protest took aim at a planned expansion of the electoral list ahead of provincial elections later this year in New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the Pacific.
The constitutional bill, which allows residents who have lived at least ten years in the territory to be elected, is currently under parliamentary review fuelling tensions between supporters and opponents of the island group's independence from France.
