New Caledonia's Congress is today expected to approve the date for the territory's independence referendum under the Noumea Accord.
The New Caledonia congress. Photo: AFP
There were 10 selected top political leaders who had agreed in French-sponsored talks last month to hold the vote on 4th November.
The 1998 Noumea Accord decolonisation roadmap has provided for a gradual and irreversible transfer of power and expires with a vote on whether to assume full sovereignty.
The vote has been possible since 2014 but the Congress is only now seizing its right to set a date, which has to be this year.
The exact wording of the referendum question has yet to be decided and voting would be restricted to long-term residents.
In the last independence referendum in 1987, 98 percent voted to stay with France.
However the pro-independence movement had called for a boycott.