Papua New Guinea's Bougainville Island Votes In Independence Referendum

Bougainville, an island belonging to Papua New Guinea, voted on Saturday in a referendum that may see it split from the archipelago nation, the official body that organized the ballot said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th December, 2019) Bougainville, an island belonging to Papua New Guinea, voted on Saturday in a referendum that may see it split from the archipelago nation, the official body that organized the ballot said.

Polls closed at 6 p.m. (07:00 GMT) and the Bougainville Referendum Commission held a prayer to mark the beginning of vote count, according to its Twitter feed.

"We'll complete this final stage as quickly as possible, but as slowly as is necessary to ensure everything is by the book," Chief Referendum Officer Mauricio Claudio said in a statement.

No preliminary results will be published, the commission said. Over the next few days 249 ballot boxes will be brought to the Count Center where they will be opened and their contents mixed before the tally begins.

People of Bougainville were promised a shot at freedom by the Papuan New Guinean government in a peace deal they struck in 2001. It ended decades of separatist fighting as the tiny nation sought to break away from Papua New Guinea, which itself was granted independence from Australia in 1975.