[2] A total of 495 candidates contested the elections, representing 19 parties.
[3] For the first time, parties were allowed party political broadcasts on radio and television, with time allocated on the basis of seats held in the outgoing Assembly and local government.
[3] The campaign was described by Pacific Islands Monthly as "exceptionally savage".
[3] Women were elected to the Assembly for the first time,[3] with Marie-Paule Serve and Edwige Antier winning seats.
[3] Anti-autonomy parties (Rally for Caledonia, the Caledonian Liberal Movement, the New Caledonian Union, the Union for Caledonian Renewal, the All Ethnicity Union and the Democratic Union) won 19 seats; pro-independence parties (the Caledonian Union, the Party of Kanak Liberation and the United Front of Kanak Liberation) won 12 seats, with the remaining four held by pro-autonomy parties (the Caledonian Socialist Party and the Melanesian Progressive Union).