Southern Sudanese vote overwhelmingly for independence - Summary

Fri, 21 Jan 2011

Juba, Sudan - Southern Sudan looks certain to become the world's newest state after partial results published by the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission Friday showed almost 99 per cent of voters had chosen to split from the north.

The week-long referendum was the centerpiece of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and Animist south.

With 3.2 million ballots tallied, 3.14 million people have voted for an independent state, according to incomplete provisional figures on the commission's website. Around 4 million people were registered to vote.

Just over 83 per cent of ballots cast in Southern Sudan have been counted, while all the votes from southerners living in the north and overseas have already been tallied, the commission said.

Most of the votes for unity came from voters in the north, where almost 43 per cent voted for Sudan to remain one country.

In the south, however, the vote was incredibly one-sided - in Unity State, only 90 people vote against independence - 0.02 percent of the votes cast.

In order for the outcome of the vote to be valid, 60 per cent of registered voters had to cast their ballots. Full preliminary results are due by the end of January.

The referendum process had raised fears of a return to north-south conflict, but these concerns have been calmed by Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and his northern party saying they will accept the result of the vote.

More than 2 million southerners died and 4 million were displaced in Sudan's 1983-2005 north-south civil war, which was essentially a continuation of the 1955-1972 conflict that followed independence from joint British and Egyptian rule.

Many issues remain to be resolved post-referendum, including the final demarcation of the north-south border, which bisects Sudan's oilfields and leaves most of the precious commodity in the south. The status of the restive border region Abyei also has to be decided.

Fighting in Abyei between northern and southern tribes claimed over 70 lives as the referendum got underway. A separate vote on whether the region goes with north or south has been delayed.

Should all go as planned, Southern Sudan is expected to be independent by July.

While southerners are elated at the prospect of becoming a nation state, aid agencies have warned the impoverished region faces huge challenges.

Southern Sudan suffers from clashes between rival communities, has only a few dozens kilometers of paved road in a country the size of France and has appalling development indicators.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/363592,overwhelmingly-independence-summary.html.