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Japan, Okinawa – More than 70 pct of voters in Okinawa Prefecture who cast ballots in a closely watched referendum on Sunday opposed the central government’s plan to relocate a controversial U.S. military base within the southern prefecture.
Votes of opposition totaled 434,273, or 71.74 pct of all votes cast, far surpassing a quarter of all eligible voters in Okinawa and even exceeding the some 397,000 votes that Okinawa Governor Tamaki garnered in the gubernatorial election last September on a platform of blocking the relocation.
The referendum, the first to seek judgment on the base relocation alone, asked voters if they support or oppose the landfill work needed for building a replacement facility for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air station, while giving them a third option of “neither.”
Votes of support stood at 114,933, while 52,682 residents voted “neither.”
The results of the referendum have no legally binding power. Still, under the prefectural ordinance on the referendum, if the most popular of the three options is backed by a quarter or more of all eligible voters in Okinawa, the governor must report the results to the Japanese prime minister and the U.S. president.
Source: The Japan News
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0005566317
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