South Sudan set to secure secession – SPLM

By Ngor Arol Garang

January 21, 2011 (ABYEI) – After spending nearly four decades fighting the north, southern officials says South Sudan is moving towards total secession from the north, following the conduct of a recently concluded plebiscite on self determination.

Southern Sudanese are expected to choose to split Africa’s largest country to create a new nation. The south constitutes roughly a quarter of Sudan’s territory but is home to the majority of the country’s known oil wealth.

The poll was conducted in line with provision of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by the Sudanese government of the National Congress Party and the former Southern rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). The deal gave the south semi-autonomous status and the right to hold an independence referendum after a six year interim period, to allow south Sudanese decide whether they should remain part of the united Sudan or vote for secession from rest of the country.

Speaking to Sudan Tribune from the regional capital of Juba, Barnaba Marial Benjamin Bill, minister of information and broadcasting service, said congratulated the people of south Sudan for turning out in massive number during the voting processes.

“I must first and foremost congratulate our people for coming out in huge number to cast their votes during the recently concluded referendum vote. Their participation in the vote showed to the whole world how much our people were determined to decide their own destiny,” said Marial.

Minister Marial also congratulated SPLM leadership under Salva Kiir Mayardit, president of the government south Sudan for their courage in pushing for complete implementation of the CPA.

“I must equally recognize to appreciate and thank efforts exerted by the SPLM leadership under our president and SPLM chairman, comrade, General Salva Kiir Mayardit for courage and patience exercised during the six years of interim period while pushing for complete implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement.”

“It was the courage and patience we in the SPLM leadership together with our public exercised during the six years of interim period which brought us this far. We must all congratulate ourselves and those who stood with us as well in term of technical assistance during negotiations with our partner,” he said.

He, however, said the implementation process saw a lot of difficulties but were able to resolve them. “It was obvious that implementation process of the comprehensive peace agreement saw a lot of difficulties.

“A lot and a lot of preconditions were set in order to hinder process to conduct referendum on self determination but we managed to overcome most of them because we had courage of our people. One of the preconditions was the census which was argued would define how wealth and power sharing arrangements would be apportioned between the south and north,” he said.

The senior member of the southern ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, SPLM, said the census in 2008 caused an argument as the Khartoum government wanted to use it as the basis for the voter registration process. “Another argument was election after census because election sets the stage for referendum, so we accepted and conducted elections in last April 2010 but conducting census and elections saw a lot of delays”.

“In early 2008, he said, the conduct of the census was delayed three times. “The same for elections, they were supposed to have been held earlier than in April but there were disagreements. Some of the issues included disagreements between us, referring to the SPLM and the national congress party, were over what we were obliged under the 2005 peace.

“These included funds and an enormous logistical challenge. There were issues related to minefields in unmapped areas, especially in the south and in the three transitional areas of Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Abyei,” he explained.

The top official also said there were disagreements in repeated discussions to approve referendum law and formation of the commission between the two parties.

“As I said earlier that implementation process was not easy, that it saw a lot of difficulties, there were disagreements between the SPLM and the National Congress Party in approving referendum law, especially about percentage of voters to validate secession option. At some points, the national congress party demanded turnout percentage to be 90% and at least another 75% to support requirement to recognize secession option.”

“This was how we were moving with them until we reached 9th of January 2011 which they also tried to be postponed but we insisted on conducting the referendum as stipulated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. So, because of our commitment and courage, we reached a compromise on referendum law in 2009”.

He said in October 2009, the National Congress Party (NCP) after a lot of international and internal pressure accepted a compromise that turnout would have to be 60% for vote to be valid and that as long as turn 60% turnout or higher, a simple majority vote of 50% plus one would be accepted for secession.

The southern official said the NCP raised the turning percentage thinking that south Sudanese would not meet 60% turnout threshold. However, the threshold was met after the first three days of the voting processes.

“They raised turnout percentage because they thought south Sudanese would not come out to meet the 60% threshold, but to their surprise, the recent turnout of our people in massive number, just in the first three days of voting alone exceeded the requirement”.

The minister said percentage was not just about turning out but was also about voting for their choice.

“I should also tell you that the percentage was not about turning out and that was it, but it equally meant voting for their choice. As of now, preliminary results from many of the polling centers from various counties and states in south Sudan and in eight other foreign countries we have received through referendum commission show that majority of our people have voted for secession,” he said.

Marial said that he believes the 74 people who voted for unity in his home state of Jonglei, “voted by mistake because I believe they were not familiar with symbols”.

In Jonglei state 112,217 voted for secession, representing 99.93 percent of voters.

“Not only in Jonglei, other states like Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap, Eastern, Central and Western Equatoria have equally voted in huge percentage in favor of separation. The voting results are overwhelmingly coming out in favor of secession,” he said.

(ST)