Low voter turnout at New Caledonia's independence referendum, after a boycott by indigenous groups 'weighs heavily' on the French territory's self-determination process, election observers from the Pacific Islands Forum said on Tuesday.
Election observers from the Pacific Islands Forum, the region's main inter-governmental group, said a significant proportion of voters, mainly independence supporters, had not voted in a stance made known before the referendum.
"Civic participation is an integral component of any democracy and critical to the interpretation and implications of Sunday's poll." The group met with New Caledonia's Congress president, Roch Wamytan, before he travelled to New York to raise concerns about the referendum at the United Nations on Thursday, and then to France.
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