South Sudan referendum bureau calls for intensive civic education

By Ngor Arol Garang

August 2, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The branch of the Khartoum-based Southern Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) in Juba on Monday called for intensive civic education in rural areas of the region.

Achier Deng Akol, a member of the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau (SSRB) based in Juba called on all civil society organizations in the country and in the Diaspora to take the leading role in the referendum awareness campaign.

Addressing a press in Juba on Monday, Deng said his experience from recent visits to all the ten southern Sudan states shows that a lot needs to be done.

He said during the visits that his team had realized that most of local population needs proper education particularly ahead of the conduct of the upcoming
referendum.

“Most of the civic education related activities are concentrated in
urban areas. This needs to be extended to rural areas and civic education should be intensified,” he said.

Already some of the civil society organizations such as ‘My Referendum for
Freedom’ have started working together with the Southern Sudan Referendum
Taskforce under the chairmanship of the Vice president, Riek Machar in
conducting referendum campaign awareness.

Echoing the same call, Lillian Rizik from Southern Sudan Women’s Empowerment Network, appealed for doubling civic education efforts.

“Let’s double our efforts as already done by My Referendum for Freedom group, to conduct and register number of Southern Sudanese living in Australia and provided the result to the SSRB for consecrations,” she said.

While politicians and civil society organizations from the south have sprung up
to enlighten local populations with the importance of referendum, the Southern
Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC), headquartered in Khartoum, remains jostling with the process to form the Referendum Secretariat General Office as stipulated under Section (19) of the Referendum Act.

The Secretariat is the body that carries out the administrative and clerical
work of the referendum commission. Discussions over who should be a Secretary General have not been made by chairperson of the commission.

However, voices from the commission representing Southern Sudan have, on Monday, come out against intention to appoint Secretary General from the north, saying the head has already been named from the region.

“This is not the way it should work. Practically, a deputy and Secretary General
should come from the south since the head of the commission comes from the north if we are to consider fairness in representation to conduct successful
referendum without politicizing it,” said an official from Southern Sudan who
declined to be named.

Many believe that appointing the Secretary General of the referendum commission is very important at this time in order to move forward with the referendum process including carrying out the executive, administrative and financial work of the Commission in accordance with the regulations.

On the other hand, the Bureau office has been formed consisting of five members with 20% woman presentation ( one out of five). Their office is based in Juba.

The team has just concluded a tour to the ten states in Southern Sudan, headed
by the Deputy Chairperson of SSRC, Justice Chan Rec Madut, who is also the Chair of the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau (SSRB), in accordance with Chapter Three, Section 16(2) of the South Sudan Referendum Act 2009.

Justice Chan, in televised statement on SSTV said last week that the objective
of the tour was for the team members to acquaint themselves with the situation
on the ground and to recommend the formation of the Referendum High Committees at the states levels in order to approve the formation of sub-committees at the counties levels.

(ST)