Roundup of media reports on voter turnout in South Sudan referendum

January 11, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Statistics reported on Tuesday by Sudan state-run media and the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) have shed more light on the rates of voter turnout in different parts of north and south Sudan in addition to overseas polling stations as the referendum on south Sudan independence enters its fourth day.

Polls for south Sudan’s referendum on independence opened as originally planned on January 9 and the voting is due to continue until January 15. The plebiscite, which will allow southerners to decide whether to remain in a united Sudan or secede to form an independent state, is the culmination of a 2005 peace deal that ended nearly two decades of civil war between the north and the south.

A total of 3,932,588 voters have registered for the referendum. Those include 3.753.815 in the south, 116,860 in the north and 60,000 in eight Out of Country (OCV) voting and registration centers.

Validation of the referendum’s results requires 60% of registered voters, i.e. 2,359,553, whereas the outcome, whether in favor of unity or secession, will be determined by the simple majority, 50% plus 1.

IN SOUTH SUDAN

According to SSRC’s deputy chairman, who is also chairman of Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau, Chan Reec Madut, incoming reports from polling stations in the ten states of southern Sudan indicate that the percentage of people who cast their ballots during the first and second day had reached 46 %.

Madut, who was speaking to Sudan’s official news agency SUNA on Tuesday, said that this large turnout would make the commission bring the dates planned for announcing preliminary results forward to 31 January instead of 7 February.

In the Upper Nile State, where 325, 287 have registered; a heavy turnout has been reported although no exact figures were given. The media secretary of the referendum state committee in the Upper Nile, James Daniel Shwang, told SUNA on Tuesday that the state had witnessed a large turnout and that no incidents of security breakdown occurred.

According to Daniel, there are observers from IGAD and the EU monitoring the vote in the state which has 242 polling stations.

In Western Bahar El Ghazal State, the head of the referendum state committee, Waul Shang Madut, on Tuesday revealed to SUNA that the number of people who cast their ballots in Raja locality, which borders South Darfur State, had reached 12, 782 out of 21.113 voters registered in the area.

Also according to Madut, the number of people who voted in the state’s provincial capital, Wau town had reached 45.188 out of 80.000.

In total, says Madut, the turnout in Western Bahr El Ghazal is estimated by more than 50%.

IN NORTH SUDAN

The percentage of voter turnout in north Sudan has reached 25%, according to SSRC’s official spokeswoman Suad Ibrahim Issa.

However, Suad was quoted by SUNA on Tuesday as saying that the commission was yet to receive preliminary results of voter turnout in south Sudan.

In Khartoum State, which holds the largest number of southern population despite recent mass returns by southerners to their homelands for fears of retribution, the percentage of the voters who cast their ballots had reached 87%, according to SUNA reports.

SUNA quoted the head of the referendum chamber in Khartoum State at the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), Judah Allah Osman, as saying that the reported turnout is the highest among all states in the north.

Judah Allah urged the SSRC to issue a decision authorizing the use of personal ID to vote in order to allow those who lost their voter registration cards to vote.

IN OCV COUNTRIES

OCV countries, which include Australia Canada Egypt Ethiopia Kenya Uganda United Kingdom and the United States, have reported a voter turnout of 25%, SSRC’s official spokesman Suad Ibrahim Issa told SUNA on Tuesday.

(ST)