as a "humiliation for Indonesia", only agreed to a set of pared-down guidelines for the plebiscite when the United States threatened to "switch sides and support the Dutch". Article XVIII of the final version of the Agreement provided the following parameters for the "act of free choice": Musyawarah (consultative councils) would be instructed on procedures to assess the will of the population The actual date of the act would be completed before 1969 The question in the act would allow the inhabitants to decide whether to stay or to separate from Indonesia All adults would be allowed to participate in the act of free choice On 15 August 1962, representatives from Indonesia and the Netherlands signed the "Agreement between the Republic of Indonesia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands Concerning West New Guinea (West Irian)" at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Implementation Some members of the quasi-legislative New Guinea Council established under the Dutch were disappointed that the Netherlands had signed the agreement without consulting the Council. Nevertheless, the Council decided to support the agreement and to cooperate with the United Nations and Indonesian authorities in keeping peace and order. A small minority of Council members, including Nicolaas Jouwe, refused to support the agreement and went into exile in the Netherlands, he only returned to Indonesia in 2009. The period of United Nations administration ended on 1 May 1963, as envisioned by the New York Agreement. Fernando Ortiz-Sanz, the United Nations Secretary-General's representative in New Guinea, observed and approved the process of musyawarah during March and April 1969 for the final Act of Free Choice, although recommending that the councils be enlarged to better comply with the adult eligibility provision of the New York Agreement. In his report, he said that the majority of petitions he received from the New Guineans were pro-Indonesian, although this assessment of local opinion is contradicted by reports from foreign embassies. Between July and August 1969, the Act of Free Choice overwhelmingly concluded in favour of staying with Indonesia. Professor of International Law H.F. Van Panhuys attributes the lopsided results to the lack of demilitarization of the territory, the process of musyawarah ("talking until a unanimous decision is reached... [was] not conducive to an atmosphere in which people could secretly and therefore fearlessly express their preference"), and the lack of an option for union with the Netherlands. At the United Nations General