Macron suspends New Caledonia reform due to snap election

French President Emmanuel Macron said that a voting reform that triggered deadly riots in France's Pacific territory New Caledonia would be "suspended" in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead the president aimed to "give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order" after weeks of unrest in which nine people died, Mr Macron told reporters at a Paris press conference.

The reform would have allowed people who have been residents in New Caledonia for at least 10 years to vote in local ballots, unfreezing electoral rolls that have gone unchanged since 2007.