UN: Preliminary results in South Sudan vote expected on February 2

Wed, 12 Jan 2011

New York - With a continued large turnout of voters in South Sudan, the United Nations said Wednesday results for the self-determination balloting are expected in early February provided there would be no appeals.

But the final result would be declared on February 7 or 14 according to the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission's timeline, said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky at UN headquarters in New York.

The commission reported voters' turnout at 46 per cent since the seven-day voting began on Sunday to decide whether Southern Sudanese want to be independent or to remain under the government in Khartoum.

The turnout in north Sudan for expatriated Sudanese was 25 per cent.

The UN said some 3.6 million Southern Sudanese had registered to vote across the country in the last step to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by north and south Sudan in 2005 to end decades of a deadly civil war. Sudanese living abroad are also voting.

The vote is being monitored by thousands of foreign as well as Sudanese observers and by a UN panel on the referendum headed by former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa.

The UN quoted Mkapa as saying on Wednesday that he expected the voting to end as scheduled on Saturday under the current pace of turnout.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/362041,vote-expected-february-2.html.