Rumbek voter relieved cast ballot after queuing for two days

By Manyang Mayom

January 11, 2011 (RUMBEK) – A voter who has been queuing for two successive days to cast his ballot in the ongoing Southern Sudan independence referendum has said that he feels relieved and with a light heart after eventually voting on Monday evening in Rumbek’s Freedom Square.

A high turnout is reported across Lakes state, which will please the southern government as for the vote to be valid, 60% of registered voters need to cast a ballot.

The referendum is part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended decades of north-south civil war.

Speaking to the press after casting his vote in Rumbek, Abraham Chol Marial said that he started queuing on Sunday at 6AM but could not cast his ballot due to the large number of other voters ahead of him.

“I arrived to this center at 6AM on January 9, and I found a queue so long. I stayed patient and waited because I knew that my freedom is ready… I have cast my vote for freedom and I feel relieved after having casted my vote into the box”.

Most observers and analysts believe that a vote for separation of the south is the most likely result.

He managed to vote on Monday at 4PM after queuing for another full day, saying that voting had relieved him from “many years of stress”. Now, he says he “feels light”, expressing hopes that the referendum result will bring the “birth of a new nation”.

Chol further said that Southern Sudanese are willing to wait until July, when the region would become officially become independent under the CPA, should the south opt to secede, as the people of the south had been struggling for years.

He urged all registered voters who have not voted to seize the chance.

“Your vote counts and your vote can bring last freedom and everlasting peace in the history of South Sudan.”

There has been a high turnout in most of the polling centers in Lakes State with voters showing enthusiasm for the exercise. Lakes state has 214 polling centers across its eight counties with a total of 300,444 registered voters.

(ST)