New Caledonia's deferred provincial elections may come with new conditions which have drawn sharp criticism from the Kanak independence movement.

France's Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed its Melanesian territory will head to the polls on June 28 on the back of three previous postponements stretching back to May 2024.

Yet to be passed relaxed voter eligibility restrictions which would allow recent New Caledonian residents — and not only the territory's citizens — to participate in the elections could also add an additional hurdle.

The change would allow around 10,000 recent French residents living in the territory to vote.

They were previously excluded under an agreed freeze which was imposed as a condition of the 1998 Nouméa Accord to satisfy the backers of Indigenous autonomy.

Tension remains high in New Caledonia that another postponement will take place.

French and New Caledonian political groups remain in negotiations over constitutional and electoral reforms tied to the future of the Pacific archipelago in the wake of independence referendums over issues with the unfreezing of local electoral rolls.

The elections were again postponed a further six months before political unrest led to rioting breaking out on the streets of Nouméa.

The violent fighting led to 14 deaths and cost the French territory more than two billion Euros in damages.

After New Caledonia's political parties and the French government tentatively came to terms on the new Bougival agreement, the French congress blocked its approval to once again to postpone elections in November 2025.

Leading Kanaky leader, Emmanuel Tjibaou, of the Independence Party Union Calédonienne — one of the parties which formed the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front alliance — last month called the Bougival agreement which replaced the Nouméa accord as "dead" after the French legislature voted overwhelmingly against the terms of the agreement.

The proposed June 28 election has led the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front to stress the standing electoral conditions still remain non-negotiable, which could cause further doubt on the legitimacy of any such poll.

In a statement a day after the anniversary of the second commemoration of the deadly riots, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front said the ongoing issues stem from French control and influence over the territory.

"They are at the heart of the Nouméa accord and of the decolonisation process", a pro-independence party statement read.

"There should be no passage en force and unilateral decision."

Pro-France parties, which represent Europeans who settled in New Caledonia in the 19th century and more recent residents from metropolitan France, were only partially satisfied with the changes in the announcement.

Rassemblement party leader Virginie Ruffenach called the electoral reform a compromise which was a "way forward," saying it was "obviously not the unfrozen electoral roll that we were calling for".

Caledonian Republicans leader Sonia Backès went a step further, dismissing the changes as "insufficient" while naming them "democratically unacceptable".

Both pro-France parties wanted greater inclusion of French citizens living in New Caledonia. More than 40 per cent of New Caledonia's 265,000 residents are Indigenous Kanaky, while just one in every four of the territory's residents are of European origin.

Ms Backès is also pushing for the matter to head to the European Court of Human Rights, so previously excluded voters be re-included on the roll.

The elections, the last of which was held in 2019, determine New Caledonia's three provincial assemblies: its congress, its collegial government and its next president.

France's Constitutional Council has warned all parties involved it would no longer tolerate further delays.