
The Falkland Islands General Election is planned to take place on the November 9, “and the Registrar General has the necessary preparations in hand,” announced Member of Legislative Assembly Michael Poole at Thursday’s meeting of Legislative Assembly.

The Falkland Islands have received assurances of sustained support from the British Parliament and from the Falkland Islands Association at that organisation’s annual general meeting in London where members were given a positive report of progress and economic development in the Islands.

Falkland Islands lawmakers have reacted with caution and expectation to the election of Mauricio Macri, ex Buenos Aires mayor, as Argentina's next president. He will succeed on 10 December Cristina Fernandez and twelve years of rough relations with Kirchnerism and constant intimidation.

The Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly received on Tuesday the Appropriation Bill which allows for expenditure of £61.4M pounds in the fiscal year 2015/16, supported by revenues of £56.9M and a projected £4.9M from oil and gas exploration, thus completing another surplus year.

Two companies have been awarded contracts by the UK Foreign Office for the clearance of minefields in the Falkland Islands, dating back to the 1982 conflict when retreating Argentine forces laid antipersonnel and other explosives particularly in a ring surrounding the capital Stanley.

As of this week the Falkland Islands elected Legislative Assembly will have a new website, located as a micro.site off the developing FIG civil service website.

Foreign minister Hector Timerman is heading a multi-party delegation that on Thursday will make the presentation of Argentina's position on the Falklands/Malvinas Islands sovereignty dispute before the UN Decolonization Committee in New York.

Falkland Islands are enjoying the benefits of a healthy well managed economy, with excellent present and future prospects in its main industries, but also face challenges such as the need for manpower, closely linked to immigration, planning for a balance between environment and oil industry, a modern government and the continued attempts by Argentina to stifle the Islands economy and block economic development.

Lawmaker Jaime Trobo came out strongly is support of close links between the Falkland Islands and Uruguay in a column which he published in Mercopress underlining the ”interesting lesson of discovering a reality mostly unknown for Uruguayans despite the (Islands) geographic, cultural and historic proximity to Uruguay”.

The recently elected Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, the first to be full-time is breaking ground and has announced several changes to its functioning basically more transparency, televised sessions, showing how decisions are reached on key issues and MLAs views, and for this has decided to name two small working groups.