Polls close in Bougainville after vote on independence from Papua New Guinea

Polls on the Pacific island chain of Bougainville closed on Saturday to end two weeks of voting in a historic referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea.Officials anticipated the “vast majority” of 207,000 registered voters cast their ballots across the region and beyond, with polling stations established for Bougainvillean diaspora in Australia, the Solomon Islands and other parts of PNG.“We won’t have turnout figures until the end of the scrutiny process but during polling we witnessed…