cover image: Report of the Pacific Islands Forum Ministerial Committee to New Caledonia on the 2018 Referendum on

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Report of the Pacific Islands Forum Ministerial Committee to New Caledonia on the 2018 Referendum on

6 Mar 2019

On the day of the referendum the Committee deployed across the three provinces of New Caledonia – the Southern Province, the Northern Province, and the Loyalty Islands Province – and observed all the stages of the referendum; the opening of polls, polling, closing of polls, and counting. [...] Accordingly, the following report details the observations and views of the Committee with regard the conduct of the 2018 referendum, as well as the enabling environment in which the referendum is staged, namely the progress in the implementation of the Noumea Accord. [...] The Committee is of the view that due to the extensive preparations and steps taken to facilitate the registration of eligible voters, the 2018 referendum roll had high degree of accuracy, and as much as possible, was reflective of the population of eligible voters as agreed in the criteria endorsed by the 16th meeting of the Committee of Signatories. [...] However, notwithstanding the technical issues observed in the conduct of the election, the Committee agreed that across all the polling stations observed in the three Provinces, there was a high degree of transparency and credibility of process, and that the final result accurately reflects the will of the voters. [...] On the basis of its observations and consultations, the Committee commends the conduct of the referendum, which in the view of the Committee was transparent, credible, and free, and which accurately reflects the views of the voters.

Authors

Angela Thomas

Pages
22
Published in
Fiji