Tag: referenda

Japan’s Okinawa to vote on controversial US base move

Residents of Japan’s Okinawa go to the polls Sunday in a closely watched referendum on the controversial relocation of a US military base to a remote part of the island. The vote is seen as highly symbolic but is also non-binding, raising questions about what effect it will have, even if opponents of the move, including Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki, prevail. The ballot will ask residents whether they support a plan to reclaim land at […]

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Worried, Catalans against independence wonder what next

by Marianne Barriaux  Agence France-Presse BARCELONA, Spain  (AFP) — Asuncion Garcia sits on a bench in Barcelona anxiously reading a newspaper. She points to a graphic of the tumbling share price of CaixaBank, the biggest bank in Catalonia, a region which is threatening to split from Spain. “I have savings in CaixaBank, the little that I have saved up,” says the 68-year-old, originally from Leon in northwestern Spain but resident in Catalonia for over 50 years. She is […]

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