Falkland Islanders on Monday voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a British oversees territory in a referendum designed to send a strong message to Argentina, which earlier derided the poll as illegal.
Some 92 per cent of the islands’ 1,672 eligible voters turned out to deliver a 98.8 per cent ‘yes’ vote in favour of staying an internally self-governing British territory, election officials in capital Port Stanley announced.
Only three votes were cast against the islands remaining British.
The resounding ‘yes’ result, delivered at around 22:30 pm (0130 GMT) on the remote South Atlantic archipelago, was not in doubt, setting the stage for an after-vote party.
Argentina, which invaded the islands in 1982 before its troops were ousted by a British task force after a short but bloody war, maintained its dismissive line on the vote.
‘It's a manoeuvre with no legal value, which has neither been convened nor supervised by the United Nations,’ said Alicia Castro, Argentina’s ambassador to London.
Some 92 per cent of the islands’ 1,672 eligible voters turned out to deliver a 98.8 per cent ‘yes’ vote in favour of staying an internally self-governing British territory, election officials in capital Port Stanley announced.
Only three votes were cast against the islands remaining British.
The resounding ‘yes’ result, delivered at around 22:30 pm (0130 GMT) on the remote South Atlantic archipelago, was not in doubt, setting the stage for an after-vote party.
Argentina, which invaded the islands in 1982 before its troops were ousted by a British task force after a short but bloody war, maintained its dismissive line on the vote.
‘It's a manoeuvre with no legal value, which has neither been convened nor supervised by the United Nations,’ said Alicia Castro, Argentina’s ambassador to London.