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Polls close in Bougainville referendum on independence from PNG
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| Contributor | Bojicat |
| Last Edited | Bojicat Dec 07, 2019 11:16am |
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| Category | News |
| Author | AlJazeera |
| News Date | Saturday, December 7, 2019 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Polls on the Pacific island chain of Bougainville have closed to end two weeks of voting in a landmark referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Officials on Saturday anticipated the "vast majority" of 207,000 registered voters cast their ballots across the region and beyond, with polling stations established for Bougainvillean diaspora in Australia, the Solomon Islands and other parts of PNG.
"We won't have turnout figures until the end of the scrutiny process but during polling we witnessed long queues at polling places, we witnessed great enthusiasm," chief referendum officer Mauricio Claudio told AFP news agency. "So we anticipate a high turnout."
The vote is a cornerstone of a 2001 peace deal that ended a brutal decade-long war between Bougainville rebels, PNG security forces and foreign mercenaries that killed up to 20,000 people and displaced thousands more. |
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