Plan for shared sovereignty expected to fail at the ballot box

GIBRALTAR -- Residents of Gibraltar are expected to resoundingly reject a British-Spanish proposal to share sovereignty over the colony, the chief minister said Wednesday.

"I don't believe this vote will be a close call," Peter Caruana said a day before the nearly 21,000 voters in the disputed territory are scheduled to hold a referendum on the proposal.

Though the vote holds no legal sway, Britain has said it is prepared to share rule of Gibraltar with Spain, but only if residents go along.

But that's unlikely given the strong opposition by those who live on the sliver of land surrounding the limestone rock that towers over the entrance to the Mediterranean, said Caruana, who has held the post of chief minister since 1996 and opposes sharing power over the colony.

"Joint sovereignty does not resolve Gibraltar's colonial status, rather it enshrines it and perpetuates it forever," he said. "It's changing one master for two."

Spain ceded Gibraltar in 1713 to Britain, which captured it nine years earlier. Ever since, control of the 2.6 square mile colony has been a sore point in relations between the governments.

Periodic Spanish attempts, or threats, to recover Gibraltar by force continued until the Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco sealed the border in 1969 to coerce the colony's return by isolating it economically. The border reopened in 1985.

The last time residents voted on sovereignty, in 1967, all but 44 of the 12,182 ballots cast were against reverting to Spanish rule.