Post date: Mar 10, 2013 5:58:26 PM
Falkland Islanders vote on keeping sovereignty status quo in referendumArgentina says is irresponsible, irrelevant.
STANLEY, FALKLAND ISLANDS (MARCH 10, 2013) (REUTERS) - Residents of the Falkland Islands began voting on Sunday (March 10) in a sovereignty referendum aimed at countering Argentina's increasingly assertive claim over the British-ruled territory.
Diplomatic tension between Britain and Argentina has flared up more than three decades since they went to war over the South Atlantic archipelago, and that has unsettled some of the roughly 2,500 islanders.With patriotic feelings running high, Falklands-born and long-term residents cast ballots in the two-day referendum in which they will be asked whether they want to stay a British Overseas Territory.
"I think it's great. It'll show the rest of the world how we feel," Stanley resident Barry Nielsen told Reuters Television. "We are British and that's the way we want to stay as British. We always say that we are more British than British."
Jan Cheek, also of Stanley, said she hoped the world would take note.
"We'll hope that people will take note of the democratic wishes of the people of theFalkland Islands and we hope that other democracies will recognize this small democracy in the south Atlantic," she said.
Officials are expected to announce the result at about 8 p.m. (2300 GMT) after polls close on Monday.
A near-unanimous "yes" vote is likely, prompting Argentina to dismiss the referendum as a meaningless publicity stunt. A high turnout is expected, however, as islanders embrace it as a chance to make their voices heard.
Some islanders are the descendants of British settlers who arrived eight or nine generations ago and the Falklands retain an unmistakably British character despite a sizeable community of immigrants from Chile and Saint Helena.
Residents say fiery remarks by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and her foreign minister, Hector Timerman, have fueled patriotic sentiment on the islands, which lie nearly 8,000 miles (12,700 km) from London and just a 75-minute flight away from southern Argentina.
Tensions have risen with the discovery of commercially viable oil resources in the Falklands basin and Fernandez's persistent demands for Britain to hold sovereignty talks over the Malvinas, as the islands are called in Spanish.
London says it will only agree to negotiations if the islanders want them, which they show no sign of doing.
Argentina has claimed the islands since 1833, saying it inherited them from the Spanish on independence and that Britain expelled an Argentine population.
The sovereignty claim is a constant in Argentine foreign policy, but there have been moments of detente since former dictator Leopoldo Galtieri sent troops to land in the Falklands in April 1982, drawing a swift response from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
A 10-week war, which killed about 650 Argentines and 255 Britons and ended when Argentina surrendered, is widely remembered in Argentina as a humiliating mistake by the brutal and discredited dictatorship ruling at the time.