South Sudan begins voter registration for referendum on secession

Mon, 15 Nov 2010

Nairobi/Juba, Sudan - Voter registration began in South Sudan on Monday for a referendum on independence, five years after the end of a bloody civil war.

The region is due to hold a referendum in January on whether to secede or remain in the power-sharing government of national unity in Khartoum.

Sava Kiir, the president of the semi-autonomous south, called on the population to participate in the historic process.

"The people must register en masse, otherwise many would have fought and died for nothing," the former rebel leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said.

Around 4 million people were killed in over two decades of war between the Muslim-dominated north and the south.

Former rebels lead the southern government from Juba, the region's war-scarred capital. While the government in Khartoum hopes to unite Africa's largest country, most observers expect that the people of South Sudan will seek an independent state.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353631,voter-registration-referendum-secession.html.