An overwhelming vote by residents of the Falkland Islands to remain under British rule didn't quell claims from Argentina on Tuesday.
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner called this week's two-day referendum a "parody" and maintained that the territory, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, rightfully belongs to her country.
"It is as if a consortium of occupiers had voted on whether to continue illegally occupying a building," she said at an event in Buenos Aires. "The results were fixed."
Asked whether they wanted to remain a British Overseas Territory, more than 99% of voters who cast ballots said yes, according to a Falkland Islands government spokesman. Just three people voted no, spokesman Darren Christie said.
Pictures at the polls showed some residents of the islands draped in Union flags as they cast their votes. Cars displayed banners that read, "We're British and proud." A parade honoring British heritage marked the start of voting Sunday.
The vote drew praise from British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"It's the clearest possible result there could be," he said, "and the fact is that the Falkland Islands may be thousands of miles away, but they are British through and through, and that is how they want to stay."
Argentina should respect the will of the islanders, he said, adding that the United Kingdom "will always be there to defend them."
Before the results were announced, one lawmaker from the islands criticized Argentina for arguing that the vote was illegitimate.
"I believe we are like other people in the world, and we are entitled to determine our own future. ... I think it's dreadful that someone like Argentina should be trying to deny us that," Sharon Halford, a member of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, told CNN. "They obviously don't care what their own people think, but worldwide, everybody has the right to determine their own future, and why should we not be the same?"
Argentina's top diplomat in the United Kingdom, meanwhile, maintained her government's position that the referendum did nothing to settle the issue.
"The British inhabitants of the Malvinas Islands unquestionably enjoy civil and political rights," Argentinian Ambassador Alicia Castro said in a statement Tuesday. "But they do not have the right to decide the sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom."
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