Act of Free Choice

The Secretary-General will, at the proper time, appoint the United Nations Representative in order that he and his staff may assume their duties in the territory one year prior to the self-determination."

Such arrangements will include: Under Article 17 of the New York Agreement, the plebiscite was not to occur until one year after the arrival of U.N. representative Fernando Ortiz-Sanz (the Bolivian ambassador to the United Nations) in the territory on 22 August 1968.

General Sarwo Edhi Wibowo instead selected 1,025 Melanesian men and women[5] out of an estimated population of 800,000 as the Western New Guinea representatives for the vote,[2][6] which was conducted across eight regencies over three weeks.

Electors were asked to vote by raising their hands or reading from prepared scripts, in a display for United Nations observers.

[1][2][7] Lunn also claims that outside the assembly, Papuan youths protesting the vote were thrown into army trucks and driven away, and that he, as the only foreign journalist, was threatened at gunpoint for taking photos of the demonstration.