17 Sep 2018

UN approves New Caledonia voter registration

10:18 am on 17 September 2018

The United Nations says New Caledonia's review of the electoral roll for the November referendum on independence has been done properly.

Kanak and French flags on Ouvea island.

Photo: AFP

It concluded that the process to update the restricted roll was on the whole completed within the law and with objectivity.

The process involved special commissions, which had been joined by UN observers, vetting the registrations as voters need to prove their details to be allowed onto the roll restricted to long-term residents.

The UN found that in some places voters were enrolled in the belief that they were eligible although they could not provide all the necessary documents.

It recommends that the process be more standardised across the territory.

The roll for the referendum lists 174,000 people of whom 80,000 have customary status.

Almost 22,000 prospective voters were born outside New Caledonia.

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