Referendum voting kicks off in Khartoum, UN Secretary-General commends the process
09 January, 2011
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Sudanow) – The voting in the southern Sudan referendum at the end of which Sudan will remain united or split into two, started on Sunday, with massive voting in the south and a lukewarm kick off in the north.
The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, issued a statement through his spokesperson commending what he described as “leadership, wisdom and concerted efforts” by the Sudanese parties in going ahead with the referendum on Sunday, the first day for the voting.
“On the eve of the referendum for the self-determination of the people of Southern Sudan, the Secretary-General commends the Government of National Unity of Sudan and the Government of Southern Sudan for their leadership, wisdom, and concerted efforts in ensuring that the referendum is held, as scheduled, on 9 January 2011, in an atmosphere of peace and cooperation.”
The statement said the Secretary-General also commends the work of the South Sudan Referendum Commission in Khartoum and its bureau in Juba, and “expresses his gratitude to all international partners, including those that have deployed observer missions, for their support to this process. “
Hundreds of thousands of southerners in South and Northern Sudan moved to polling stations on the first day of the 5-day referendum voting.
The Sudanese First Vice President cum-President of Government of Southern Sudan, General Salva Kiir Mayardit, was the first southerner to vote in Juba, according to the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reporting from Juba, capital of Southern Sudan on Sunday.
“We have toured a number of centers and everything is going well, and if things continue this way I think we will see a smooth referendum.” the official spokesperson for the Southern Sudan Referendum commission, Suaad Eissa said early morning Sunday in Khartoum.
In one voting centre in down town Khartoum where over 900 southerners had registered, some 70 turned out and voted in the first three hours. The voting continues for five days.
The government mounted heavy police and security presence around the centers with massive observers’ presence. In the Izaiba area where centre number 1200 is located, some 17 representatives of local and international observation organizations were present, following every move taken inside the centre. Carter Center, the European Commission, the African Union, the League of the Arab States all have deployed observers in the polling centres.
President Omer Bashir has repeatedly said he would see to it that those polling are protected and no pressure exercised on them. He said he would accept the outcome of the voting be it unity or separation.
However President Bashir has stressed that he would apply the stipulations of the Comprehensive peace Agreement which said if southerners chose separation then the 20% of the jobs they occupy in the federal government will automatically drop and they have to leave their posts.
In Khartoum voting began at exactly 8:00 am and is set to continue up to 05:00 pm Sudan local time, in 3,000 balloting centers both at home and abroad until January 15.
According to the Southern Sudan Referendum commission, some 3,930,916 illegible voters will take part in the process that stated today, including 3,753,815 in the south, 116,860 in the north and 60,241abroad.
The commission had said that the result of the referendum would be acceptable if the turnout exceeded 60% of the registered voters.
The referendum is the last chapter in the comprehensive peace Agreement CPA signed in 2005, between the government and the then rebel Sudan people’s liberation movement SPLM in Nairobi, Kenya, amid heavy international presence that supervised the details of the accord, at Naivasha, Kenya.
The CPA stipulates that the southern Sudanese be given the right to self determination in a plebiscite to beheld five years after the implementation of the accord. The CPA itself expiries in June this year, if the southern Sudanese chose separation, and thus two states are created.
“We still don’t know the outcome of the vote, but even if southerners chose separation, it would be only a political one. Socially, economically, ethnically, and emotionally you could not separate the north from the south, “the legal advisor for the southern SPLM, Mohamed al Mutasem Hatim, told reporters on Sunday.
End
Mohamed Osman
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