GOSS minister educates W. Equatoria on referendum law

October 22, 2010 (YAMBIO) – South Sudan’s Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Michael Makuei Lueth arrived in Western Equatoria state on Thursday evening to enlighten the government officials on the legal basis for January’s self determination vote.

In an interview upon his arrival in Yambio, the capital of Western Equatoria, Makuei said, “As days reduce to the countdown for south Sudan to make history, it is high time to enlighten the citizens on the legality of the conduct of the referendum.”

“The Referendum Act needs technical persons to ensure that all the legal procedures are followed accordingly by every citizen to reach an international standard”, said Michael.

The minister plans to visit all ten states in southern Sudan to ensure that people are well informed in the context of the act.

Southern Sudan is due to hold a referendum on 9 January next year, which could see the region become independent.

The speaker of the Western Equatoria Legislative Assembly, Bukulu Edward said that, “this is high time for the officials to equip themselves with the referendum legal framework before visiting their various constituencies with sensitization on the importance of the referendum.”

“The people of south Sudan are preparing to make inevitable history in their life time which will prove that, the name Sudan retains its full meaning, as the land of the blacks,” asserted the speaker.

Bukulu added that this was the only opportunity left for Southerners to gain independence from the north.

The referendum is the final part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended over two decades of war between north and south.

The Deputy Governor of Western Equatoria, Sapana Abui said the state appreciated the opportunity to receive lectures from some of the lawyers who wrote the southern Sudan Referendum Act 2009.

Sapana urged government officials to take the lectures seriously, and abide by the instructions given to “ensure the referendum exercise reach international standards.”

He said Western Equatoria would make tremendous efforts “to make the historic event fair, free and transparent according to the legal act of the referendum.”

On Wednesday forty county referendum committee members in Western Equatoria were sworn in by chairperson of southern Sudan Referendum Bureau Justice Justice Chan Reec Madut in Yambio county.

Speaking after the swearing ceremony, Justice Chan said that, “time has come for southern Sudanese to exercise their rights to freedom in Jan 2011 in their plea to attain self determination votes.”

Chan urged the committees “to maintain neutrality not to lean on other sides of the whole exercise according to the oaths taken.”

He also encouraged the State Referendum High Committee (SRHC) to ensure that at least 25% of the sub committees were women.

State Chairperson for the Referendum High Committee, Sibrino Farajallah, encouraged the sworn in county members “to be united and forget the past differences and work as one body for the success of the referendum in the state.”

Sibrino promised to prepare good working environment that will allow the citizens to exercise their self determination rights freely, without any “intimidations and hindrance.”

Speaking after the swearing-in ceremony, the chairperson of Yambio county Mrs Modi Enosa Mbaraza said that for the exercise to be successful security should be put in place in the counties affected by insurgents.

One person was killed and another injured Wednesday in a raid by the Lord’s Resistance Army on a village near Yambio, the state capital of Western Equatoria state, in southern Sudan.

Modi vowed to do her best to ensure that the referendum is conducted freely in Yambio county without any obstacle.

(ST)