South Sudanese travel to vote in independence referendum

By Thon Philip Aleu

January 8, 2011 (BOR) – Bus parks are overcrowded as southern Sudanese travel to cast their votes at various locations in a referendum to decide whether Africa’s largest nation will remain unified or if the south will secede.

An overwhelming number of voters are expected to turn-out with secession campaigners emerging as victorious according to opinion polls. A quorum of 60% is needed for the vote to be valid under the referendum law passed by Sudan’s parliament.

The State High Committee (SHC) for the referendum in all the ten states of the south say everything is ready for the exercise to begin on Sunday 9 January 2011.

In Jonglei state where poor roads have hindered preparations, all the materials for Sunday’s independence vote have been delivered several days in advance, with the UN helping to reach remote areas with helicopters, according to the SHC.

Voting will take place from Sunday January 9 to Saturday January 15.

“It’s absolutely a responsibility of every one of us [southern Sudanese] to participate in this referendum,” said John Deng as he boarded a mini-bus for Juba, the south’s capital, where he registered last month.

“This is the only chance we have to decide […] It’s important,” he added.

The referendum was agreed as part the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the second north-south civil war (1983—2005) after the peace deal that ended the first conflict (1955—1972) collapsed over disputes over political representation, Nile water, economic marginalization, the division of southern states and the imposition of Islamic Shari’a Law on the south, whose population practice Christianity and traditional African beliefs.

Sudan’s second civil war was Africa’s longest and one it’s most devastating, resulting in the deaths of two million people and displacing four million according to the UN.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), who now govern Southern Sudan, was formed initially as a rebel group, after a mutiny by southern officers from the national army in Bor, the capital of Jonglei.

Referendum voting will begin on Sunday, exactly six years after the CPA was signed on January 9, 2005 between the government of Khartoum, represented by the ruling National Congress Party, and the SPLM.

Since 2005 the SPLM have governed the south, as well as the junior partner in the Government of National Unity and the largest opposition in Sudan’s National Assembly, is campaigning for secession, while the NCP, is calling for unity. However, in recent days the Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has said he will respect the result of the referendum.

Most observers predict an overwhelming vote in favor of secession.

Should the south chose to separate the two parties will have until July 9, to finalize post-referendum arrangements including: demarcating the border, national debt and assets, oil and water resources and the status of the contested border region of Abyei.

The oil-producing region was due to hold a simultaneous referendum to decide whether it would join the potentially independent south or remain on the north of the border. However, failure to agree on who can participate in the vote or establish a commission has meant the vote will take place on time and a new date, or a political agreement has not been found despite numerous talks between the two parties.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday President al-Bashir said that should Abyei unilaterally declare that it has joined the south this could trigger a return to conflict.

(ST)