Okinawa votes against US base move: exit polls

Voters on the Japanese island of Okinawa have rejected the relocation of a controversial US military base, according to official results from a non-binding referendum yesterday.  With 99% of ballots counted, some 72% had voted against the move with 19% in favour, according to the local government. Opponents of the relocation — some 434,000 — had turned out in sufficient numbers to meet the threshold required for Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki to “respect” the result of the symbolic referendum, it said. For this to happen, one quarter of the eligible electorate – or around 290,000 people – had to vote for one of the three options: for or against relocation or a third choice of “neither.” In any case, the vote is non-binding on the central government and turnout was just above 50%, raising questions about what effect the referendum will have. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to press on with moving the base and the relocation is also backed by Washington. The relocation of the Futenma base to Nago, 50km away, was first agreed in 1996 as the US sought to calm local anger after US servicemen gang raped a local schoolgirl. But the plan has long been stalled in part over local opposition. The ballot asked residents whether they supported a plan to reclaim land at a remote coastal site for the relocation of Futenma from its current location in a heavily populated part of Okinawa. It was initially planned as a yes-no vote, but a “neither” option was added after several cities with close ties to the central government threatened to boycott the vote. Polls opened early yesterday morning, with about 1.15mn Okinawans eligible to vote. Speaking after casting her ballot at a local school, voter Yuki Miyagaki said: “They are using a lot of tax money and manpower for this referendum, even though the result will not have any legal power. So we thought that we should take this opportunity and think very carefully about this issue.”  “We usually shout no to the new base construction. This is a good opportunity to tell the government directly with concrete numbers: ‘No’. This is an important vote,” 32-year-old Narumi Haine told AFP. “The referendum has underlined once again Okinawa’s strong opposition to the relocation,” Yoshinobu Yamamoto, professor of politics at the University of Niigata prefecture, told AFP. “The result could be a negotiating card for the governor, but it’s unlikely to have an immediate impact,” he added. “The dispute is far from its resolution.”