United Nations experts have given a positive assessment of how New Caledonia's restricted roll for the referendum on independence from France has been updated.
Voters on New Caledonia's restricted roll line up in 2018 independence referendum Photo: RNZ Walter Zweifel
Under the Noumea Accord, voting on the territory's future status is restricted to long term residents and their eligibility is verified by special administrative commissions at local council level.
A dozen experts chosen by the UN arrived earlier in the year to observe the commissions' work and found them to be operating smoothly.
Last November, voters rejected independence but the decolonisation process under the Noumea Accord allows for two more such plebiscites, with the next one widely expected next year.
France cooperates with the UN in the case of New Caledonia but refuses to engage over French Polynesia which the UN put back on the decolonisation list six years ago.
