Bougainville agrees with PNG to delay independence vote till November

Bougainville Copper

05/08/2019 09:17

SYDNEY, Aug 5 (Reuters) - An independence referendum for the
Pacific island of Bougainville has been delayed again by the
governments of the island and Papua New Guinea (PNG) but will be
held this year, the referendum commission said on Monday.
    Voting in the referendum will now open on November 23,
having been pushed back from a revised date of October 17 that
was announced in March.
    Under a peace agreement signed after a nine-year civil war
with the PNG mainland ended in 1998, Bougainville has until
mid-2020 to hold the referendum, which had originally been
scheduled for June.
    "The referendum will be held this year," Bougainville
Referendum Commission chair Bertie Ahern said in a statement
after the two governments had decided on Friday that extra time
was needed to create a more credible electoral roll.
    "We will use these precious few weeks wisely, and we ask for
public support to make this referendum roll as inclusive as
possible and one that people can trust," said Ahern, a former
prime minister of Ireland. 
    The civil war was largely about how profits from a giant
copper mine, Panguna, should be shared, and it forced resources
giant Rio Tinto  RIO.AX  to abandon the mine.
    At the time, the mine was the largest source of export
revenue for Papua New Guinea and comprised about 7 percent of
global copper production.
    The conflict between Bougainville's rebel guerrilla army and
Papua New Guinea forces left as many as 20,000 dead, the worst
conflict in the Oceania region since the Second World War.
    Rio Tinto divested its stake in the shuttered mine's
operator, Bougainville Copper Ltd  BOC.AX , in 2016.
    The outcome of the referendum, which analysts expect to
support independence, is then subject to ratification by PNG's
parliament.

 (Reporting by John Mair; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
 ((john.mair@thomsonreuters.com; +612 9321 8151))