A legal challenge aimed to annul the result of last December's referendum on New Caledonia's independence from France has failed.
The highest administrative court in Paris rejected a claim by the Kanak customary Senate that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was such that the referendum outcome was illegitimate.
More than 96 percent voted against independence in the third and last referendum under the Noumea Accord, but more than 56 percent of voters abstained.
The pro-independence parties had called for a boycott of the referendum after France had rejected pleas for the vote to be postponed until this year.
Senior RNZ Pacific journalist Walter Zweifel has been following the court case.
FLNKS supporters wave the Kanak flag of New Caledonia on the night of the second independence referendum in October 2020. Photo: AFP or licensors
