“The referendum will show the world how we feel, that we are British and that we wish to remain British. We don’t want to have nothing to do with Argentina, at all,” islander Barry Nielson said as he voted.
Election observer Juan Henao said the process has been completely normal, and that more than 70 percent of the voters had cast their ballots by Monday afternoon. Polls were closing at 6 p.m., and the results were expected to be announced late Monday night.
The ballot asks a simple yes-or-no question: “Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?”
Most islanders interviewed by The Associated Press said they expect an overwhelming “Yes” vote.
They weren’t given a choice in this ballot for any alternatives, such as full independence or some sort of political relationship with Argentina. The Falkland Islands Government said that in the hypothetical case of a majority for “no,” they could explore alternatives in a second vote later.
The government barred from voting any visiting contractors or personnel from the sizeable British military deployment, as well as anyone who hasn’t resided in the islands for the last 12 months, thus excluding several people with islander status who have chosen to live in Argentina.
Argentines consider the “Islas Malvinas” to be part of their national territory, taken from them by the British more than 180 years ago. One group at the iconic obelisk in Buenos Aires said Monday that it had gathered 100,000 signatures supporting Argentina’s claim to the territory and the resource-rich seas that surrounds the archipelago.
The islands’ community, which includes families that have worked the land for nine generations, is steeped in British culture, and British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote in the tabloid The Sun on Sunday that “as long as the Falklanders want to stay British, we will always be there to protect them. They have my word on that.”
But islanders have worried that British support is not guaranteed. They well remember that Britain was preparing to hand over the islands to Argentina before the military government in Buenos Aires occupied them in 1982, prompting a war that killed 907 people.
Defending them ever since by staffing a large military garrison 8,000 miles from London has been a costly sore point for Britons facing austerity measures. A Daily Mirror columnist complained about this on Monday, saying that “the result’s not in doubt when the Islanders are voting for ‘free money.’ ”
The political columnist, Kevin Maguire, wrote that the UK “spends 75million ($112 million) on troops, missiles, aircraft and warships to guard their sheep lands,” an annual military subsidy he calculated at 44,856 ($67,000) per island voter.
“It is glaringly obvious that a deal with neighbor Argentina remains the only sensible long-term answer to the Falklands-Malvinas,” Maguire concluded.
Argentina maintains that the islanders have no voice in a dispute that must be settled bilaterally, with Britain alone. The islanders hope the referendum will help them keep any deal off the table — and perhaps even persuade neutral nations such as the United States to come down on their side.
Two Falkland Islands lawmakers were already on their way to Washington, preparing to hand-deliver the results of an overwhelming “yes” vote to the U.S. Congress.
“Self-determination is what the United States was founded on and it is a fundamental right. It’s a right that they recognize. So I would hope that they would listen to what’s happening here today,” said another member of the islands’ legislative assembly, Dick Sawle.
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