Voters in the South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia cast ballots on Sunday in a referendum on whether to remain French in an Indo-Pacific region of increasing global importance.
The vote is part of a decades-long process of decolonisation but pro-independence forces have refused to take part.
They had aimed to delay the vote in part due to the COVID-19 crisis which influenced the campaign.
Voters were asked to vote yes or no on the question: “Do you want New Caledonia to achieve full sovereignty and become independent?”
The archipelago became French in 1853 under Emperor Napoleon III and was used as a prison colony.
But the territory of 270,000 people won broad autonomy after violence in 1988 led to a political process known as the Noumea
Read more on euronews.com