As was anticipated 99.8% of Falkland Islanders voted to maintain the current political status of the Islands as a British Overseas Territory, it was announced late Monday evening by the local electoral authorities.
”I came to meet a peaceful population of sheep farmers and fishing people and they were not waiting for me to support them” but they have very strong and historic links with Uruguay, said lawmaker Jose Cardoso, who is currently in the Falklands to observe the referendum on the Islanders political status and future.
“Voting is a human right and electoral observation does not validate a thing, it is a simple act of analyzing if those conditions people have proposed for the ballot event, are fully complied” said Uruguayan lawmaker Jaime Trobo currently in the Falklands for the referendum on the Islands political status and future.
The following opinion column from Argentine ambassador Alicia Castro in UK was published Monday in The Guardian.
“What lies at the heart of our Commonwealth approach is individuals and communities finding ways to strive together to create a better future that is beneficial for all” said the official Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth message celebrated on Monday.
There is no doubt that the Falkland Islanders have the right to self-determination, a visiting professor of politics told a public meeting held in the capital Stanley at the Chamber of Commerce last Friday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron warned that Britain “will protect” the people of the Falkland Islands from the “intimidation and threats” of Argentina, which claims sovereignty of the South Atlantic archipelago
The head of Argentina’s Lower House, Julián Domínguez, assured on Sunday that the referendum being carried out in the Falklands/Malvinas Islands is “another move by the English empire to continue justifying the illegal usurpation of land”.
The South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute (SAERI) announced a new program: the South Atlantic Information Management System and GIS Centre, which officially brings together the UK South Atlantic Overseas Territories in SAERI’s South Atlantic scope that ranges from the equator down to the ice. The Centre is funded by the FCO via the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Uruguay Minister of Defence Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro described as an “enormous shame” for the country the fact that two lawmakers from the leading opposition National party travelled to the Falklands/Malvinas to participate as observers of the Sunday/Monday referendum on the Islands political status and future.