Polling is open in the Cook Islands where 11,000 registered voters will elect their leaders for the next four years.

Voting stations opened at 9am on Wednesday morning, Cook Islands time (7am Thursday NZT) and will close at 6pm.

There are 24 constituencies, 10 on the main island of Rarotonga, and the other 14 spread across the Pa Enua, or outer islands.

• READ MORE: Cost of living, water tariffs, mining on Cook Islanders’ minds ahead of election
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Thirteen seats are needed for a majority to form a government.

A total of 63 candidates were confirmed for the 2026 general election, down from the 71 who contested the 2022 election. This year’s lineup includes 49 men and 14 women.

With independents making up 20 percent of candidates, should no party claim the 13 seats needed for majority, the independents could hold the power over who forms government.

One seat has already been won this election, with Mangaia’s Ivirua candidate Agnes Helen Armstrong running uncontested as an independent.

There has been a delay in the Northern Cooks, as bad weather meant electoral officers were unable to get ashore in Nassau.

Officials have announced the island’s polling will be postponed to Thursday afternoon local time.

The issues for voters
The local newspaper, Cook Islands News, ran a poll which found a majority (50.5 percent) of respondents across the Pa Enua and Rarotonga identified the cost of living and inflation — including fuel prices, water and power bills, housing, transportation and consumer goods — as their primary concern.

Editor Rashneel Kumar told RNZ Pacific Waves last week that global conflicts, contributing to resource restraints and costs, have a flow-on effect on local customers.

“With the Middle East conflict, obviously, we have seen a impact on small island nations, and Cook Islands is not spared as well,” he said.

“We end up the supply chain, so we do absorb a lot of additional cost — and by the time the goods land here, the prices does have an impact as well as price of energy through the increase of petrol has affected the people.

“So cost of living obviously is number one issue.”

Water tariffs, seabed minerals and foreign relationships have also been heavily debated topics of interest.

Heavy security has been deployed in New Caledonia as crucial provincial elections are being held in the French Pacific territory today.

Polling stations are open from 8am local time (9am NZ time) until 6pm tonight.

This comes as heavy security has been deployed. It involves a total of some 2500 law enforcement officers, mostly policemen and gendarmes (the equivalent of 16 squadrons, as opposed to 12 in normal circumstances).

• READ MORE: New Caledonia’s political parties make final pitch to voters before campaigning ends
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Additional officers from the French anti-crime squad and judiciary police are deployed.

The reinforcements are to remain posted at least until early July 2026 or longer, depending on what develops.

The heavy set-up mainly focuses on security and monitoring of polling stations and their immediate surroundings.

Drones and additional armoured vehicles are also deployed on the ground, including the Centaurs — armoured vehicles that were previously used during and after the riots that broke out in New Caledonia in May 2024, causing 14 dead and material damage of about 2.2 billion euros (NZ$.4.4 billion).

The whole security operation is meant to “reassure” the population, as well as show the presence of security forces on the ground and their capacity to intervene quickly if needed.

The French High Commission in New Caledonia said at the weekend the general climate was relatively calm ahead of the vote.

Since last week, a total ban on the sale of alcohol has been in force and will remain until after election day.

This, the High Commission said, was because New Caledonia was still undergoing a “sensitive” period on social and economic grounds.

Latest incident on the Isle of Pines
However, on Friday evening, in the small island town of Vao, on the Isle of Pines (south off the capital Nouméa), police and gendarmes were called about midnight to intervene following a fire on a building near the Town Hall municipal council meeting room, which was to be used as a polling station for today’s elections.

The polling station was relocated to a school canteen in the village of Vao.

Gendarmes later arrested one teenager — part of a group of five — and they were targeted by stone-throwing.

One of the gendarmes had to be medivaced to Nouméa.

Witnesses also said in the small building, which also hosts the local power company Enercal, safes containing cash has been forced open and cash stolen.

Two flags were also stolen.

Public Prosecutor Yves Dupas told local media an investigation was ongoing, but initial findings indicated that the main target of the group was the electrical company’s office and that subsequent damage to the nearby designated polling station could be regarded as collateral.

The perpetrators were also found to be “severely inebriated”.

The latest incident has triggered swift and angry reactions from the Great Chief of the Isle of Pines, as well as from Mayor Régis Vendegou and the government of New Caledonia, which said “nothing can justify” those actions.

No cyber threat so far
Potential attempts of local or foreign cyber interference is also being closely monitored with the assistance of French digital watchdog agency Viginum.

So far no significant threat has been reported of attempts to “discredit the electoral process, jeopardise the confidence of the public in the media or trying to influence the public in favour or against a specific party or candidate”.

Provisional results should start to emerge after polling booths close at 6pm with progressive counting during the evening.

The vote involving some 192,584 registered voters (according to the latest official figures), in 298 polling stations, will determine the 76 members of New Caledonia’s three provinces (22 for the Northern, 40 for the Southern, and 14 for the Loyalty Islands).

On a proportional basis, the three provinces will then be represented and make up the Congress of New Caledonia, consisting of 54 members.

From the new Congress, a new local “collegial” government and its President would then automatically emerge.

New Caledonia’s diaspora votes by proxy
There are 127,474 registered voters in the Southern Province (where the capital Nouméa is located), 43,016 in the Northern province and 22,094 in the Loyalty Islands province.

An estimated 5000 voters (who will be either absent from New Caledonia on polling day or who live in mainland France, Australia, New Zealand or Vanuatu) will also vote by proxy.