NOUMEA, New Caledonia -- Residents of the French Territory of New Caledonia vote Sunday in a referendum on independence, but a planned mass boycott by native Melanesians is expected to scuttle the measure.
Thousands of riot police and crack troops were deployed throughout the southwestern Pacific territory in case of trouble during the controversial poll.
All sides expect that independence, in the first vote on the question since the 1853 French annexation of the island group, will be overwhelmingly rejected. The focus has shifted to voter turnout among the 84,283 eligible voters, which will be the sole indication of the strength of the territory's Melanesian-led, pro-independence movement.
If the voters choose independence, France has said it will immediately cut all ties, including $260 million a year in French aid. France has claimed that independence would open the way for Libya or the Soviet Union to take control of the country, the world's third largest nickel producer.
A pro-independence umbrella group, the Front for National Kanak Socialist Liberation, which claims to represent a majority of the indigenous Melanesians, has called for the boycott because the vote allows short-term French, Asian and Polynesian residents to vote and breaks a promise by former French President Francois Mitterand.
Front leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou said that Mitterand, before his government was replaced by the Conservative Party of Premier Jacques Chirac in March 1986, pledged an independence referendum with an option for 'free association' with France in the style of the Micronesian Territories of the United States.
Tjibaou's group, which has been barred from staging protest marches and rallies, said a turnout of less than 50 percent against independence would prove the French government failed to show the world that an overwhelming majority of New Caledonians want to remain part of France.
Kanaks, as native Melanesians are called, comprise 43 percent of the 150,000 population
New Caledonia's neighbors, including Australia and New Zealand, have previously condemned the referendum as a 'recipe for disaster.'
The United Nations Decolonization Committee refused to send observers because of the alleged failure of the poll to consider seriously the rights of the indigenous population.
And the government of Papua New Guinea said it would consider recognizing FLNKS as the legitimate government of New Caledonia if Sunday's referendum results in a vote to remain a part of France.
In a bid to appease Kanaks, the Chirac government restricted voting to only those who had lived in the territory for more than three years, thus excluding civil servants and military personnel.
FLNKS argued that only natives with at least one native parent should be allowed to vote.
The white French make up only 37 percent of the population, but it has effectively become the majority with the support of Asian and Polynesian residents, who account for 20 percent and mostly favor French rule.
Fearing a repeat of rioting that claimed 20 lives following a 1984 election, the government last month banned an island-long march by Kanaks and a similar protest by right-wing French loyalists.
Only one outbreak of violence marred the campaign. Riot police fired tear gas and launched a baton charge against 300 seated Kanak pro-indendence supporters in a Noumea parkon Aug. 23, injuring about 20 people.
An Australian film crew recorded the beatings and the footage was shown on French television, prompting Mitterand to accuse French police of brutality.
The Chirac government has beefed up security in New Caledonia to 8,000 police and military personnel -- one officer for every nine Kanaks. Security forces also include nearly 3,000 riot police along with alpine soldiers and paratroopers who have been bivouacked in the countryside.
France has flown in a total of 146 judges to oversee the balloting in 141 voting centers on the main island of Grande Terre and the smaller islands of Lifou, Mare, Ouvea and Ile Des Pin.
