South Sudan VP inaugurates sortition ceremony of national schools contest

November 21, 2010 (WAU) – The vice-president of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), Riek Machar, on Saturday inaugurated the sortition ceremony of the national school contests, whose actual activities have been re-scheduled to kick off on 04 December.

According to the state-run Sudan Media Center (SMC), Machar attended the ceremony in Wau town, the provincial capital of West Bahr al-Ghazal State, where 25 state ministers of educations were also present.

In his opening address, Machar announced that the launch of this year’s national school competitions had been postponed until 04 December because the previous date, which was 27 November, had clashed with the ongoing voter-registration for south Sudan referendum.

Voter-registration for the politically sensitive vote on South Sudan’s full independence from the north began domestically and abroad on November 15. The exercise is scheduled to last until December 01, five weeks before the start of the actual vote on January 01.

The plebiscite is the terminus of a 2005 peace deal which ended decades of civil war between north and south Sudan.

It is widely expected that southerners, driven by bitterness of civil war and perceived exploitation by north Sudan’s successive governments, will vote overwhelmingly for independence.

(ST)