Falkland Islands voters yesterday elected a new Legislative Assembly with a clear mandate to put the environment front and center of the coming legislature.
The Falkland Islands General Election is scheduled for Thursday, 4 November, and in our previous edition, we published the manifestos of the four candidates for the three benches representing the Camp circumscription in the Legislative Assembly.
A statement entitled ‘Progress made towards establishing a second commercial Falkland Islands air link’ released last week by the Falkland Islands Government, but too late for publication in the Penguin News, has met with a mixed reception in the Islands. While some have expressed favor others have reservations and questions as witnessed by readers’ letters in this Friday edition.
Falklands Radio has new staff members from this week. Corina Goss has returned as Station Manager, while Gavin Short has joined the team as Senior News Correspondent.
Corina was also the station manager from 2005 to 2016, having joined the station in 1993, aged just 16, as a continuity announcer.
Residents of the Falkland Islands are due to go to the polls to elect their new Legislative Assembly on Thursday 9th November 2017. Seventeen candidates are standing for the eight available spots on the Assembly. The Assembly is responsible for the internal government of the Islands and sets the national agenda. It also liaises with the United Kingdom Government on issues of defence and is increasingly actively involved in foreign affairs efforts on behalf of 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 UK GREAT pavilion at Uruguay's main agri-business exhibition in Montevideo received the top prize for its category while a stall from the Falkland Islands, tended to by Islanders, is estimated to have been visited by 10% of the more than half million visitors that attended the week-long Expo-Prado.
A business delegation from the Falkland Islands participated in Uruguay's main agri-business show at the Prado grounds with a stall in the British GREAT pavilion. The week attendance was described as 'surprising and successful' and Falklands lawmaker Gavin Short addressed an open letter thanking all those involved in helping with the Islands' presence.
A lively debate, at times impassioned took place earlier this week in the Falkland Islands during a public meeting at the Chamber of Commerce to discuss bad behavior from Argentine visitors which was described as 'disturbing and distressing” for many Islanders.
The Mercosur parliament, Parlasur, in a special Monday session held in Montevideo, rejected British 'control' over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands and described the situation as a colonial conflict of 'global' proportion which threatens the region.