Sudan may hold two national votes over peace deal

KHARTOUM, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Sudan may hold two referendums over a future peace deal with southern rebels to ensure broad support and amend parts of the constitution that clash with the agreement, a Sudanese newspaper reported on Friday.

“The coming peace agreement should be put to a referendum so that all citizens can have their say,” government-owned al-Anbaa newspaper quoted Justice Minister Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin as saying.

Yassin also said there would later be a second referendum to amend the constitution so that it complies with a peace deal.

“The stipulations of the agreement which include changes to the constitution should be put to a referendum,” he said.

Sudan’s government and main rebel group the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) signed a key security accord in September, clearing a big stumbling block in talks aimed at ending a conflict that has killed some two million people.

Peace has eluded Sudan despite years of efforts to end the civil war, which broke out in 1983, pitting the Islamist government in the north against rebels seeking greater autonomy in the mainly animist and Christian south.

The peace talks are due to resume at committee level on October 6 to discuss unresolved issues such as power and wealth sharing.

Al-Anbaa quoted Yassin as saying the constitution allowed some of its articles to be amended by a two-thirds majority in the country’s parliament but other articles could only be changed through a referendum.

Yassin told al-Anbaa his ministry would form committees to look at the relevant laws, one of which related to national security and police forces.

The security deal provides for two separate armies with the creation of integrated units comprising government and SPLA troops during a six-year transition period, at the end of which southerners will have the right to vote on secession.