Southerners in Kenya voted overwhelmingly for secession

By Muhammad Osman

January 17, 2011 (NAIROBI) – Aggregated results of vote counting in south Sudan referendum on independence from the north in Kenya have revealed a landslide vote in favor of secession.

A week-long of voting on south Sudan referendum ended on Saturday, 15 January, at 3000 polling stations inside Sudan and eight Out-of-Country-Voting (OCV) locations. The referendum serves to determine whether the semi-autonomous region of south Sudan will remain united with the north or secede to form an independent state.

The plebiscite is the centerpiece of the 2005’s peace deal that ended nearly half a century of intermittent civil wars between the north and the south.

Kenya, which scored the largest number of registered voters, is among OCV countries along with Australia, Canada, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, the UK and the US.

Out of the 15,062 registrants who voted in eight polling stations across the East African country, 14,712 have voted for secession whereas only 42 voters casted their ballots in favor of unity.

The results were announced in a press conference held on Monday at the offices of the International Organization for Migration in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, by the Kenya representative of Southern Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC), which oversees the process,

The SSRC official, Mr. Achuoth Philip Deng, also announced that there were 23 invalid ballots and 59 unmarked ballots.

The final results of the referendum are due to be announced in mid-February, according to the SSRC chairperson Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil.

(ST)