Southern Sudan referendum results indicate secession

Polling officials have said that partial results of the Southern Sudan's referendum indicate that 99 per cent of the people voted for independence from the north. The results, published on Friday 21st January, are only partially complete with several hundred thousand votes yet to be counted to account for the 96 per cent turnout estimate. The final results will be announced next month.

A spokesman for the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau, Aleu Garang Aleu, said: "Some few counties still remain to submit their results, so the figures are not complete yet, and we are continuing to work hard to finalise the results…We are still expecting that the results for the south will be released on January 31, and, allowing time for any appeals, the final result will be announced in Khartoum on 14th February."

According to the rules, stipulated in the 2005 peace treaty between the north and the south, for the referendum to be valid more than 50 per cent of voters must back secession, and at least 60 per cent of registered voters must take part in the referendum.

So far, the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission has counted 3,197,038 ballots which revealed that 98.6 per cent of the people voted in favour of secession. In the state of Jonglei, an overwhelming 99.93 per cent of votes were in favour of secession, with a mere 77 voters supporting Sudan's unity. The preliminary results from the state of Western Equatoria also showed that 99.5 per cent of voters backed independence.

Sources: BBC News, AfricaAsia, Reuters, Voice of America

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