Agreement over roll for New Caledonia vote

PARIS – The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says an agreement has been reached about the make-up of the roll in New Caledonia which will be used in the territory’s 2018 independence referendum.

Valls made the announcement in Paris after a day of negotiations with the New Caledonian signatories of the 1998 Noumea Accord, which is the decolonisation road map.

He said the issue of the voters’ lists will be considered to be settled once residents ineligible to vote have been removed from the roll.

There are also calls for a new accord to largely perpetuate the status quo, but France is adamant that a vote will be held in 2018.

- RNZI