Nearly all observers are apparently unanimous in their predictions that the majority of South Sudanese are poised to vote for independence on 9th January 2011. A total of 3.3 million people, representing 96% of eligible voters have registered in Southern Sudan ahead of the region’s independence referendum on 9th January, according to officials from the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau (SSRB).
This figure, according to Justice Chan Reec Madut, the SSRB chairperson, still excludes results from 114 registration centers, which he said have remained inaccessible due to persistent communication problems.
Madut said that they hope to receive the final reports from these areas soon, among them from Upper Nile 2 centers, Unity State 2 centers, Warrap State 22 centers, North Bar-el-Ghazal 5 centers, Central Equatoria 1 center and Eastern Equatoria 22 centers.
“We are on course and remain confident that the referendum will take place as scheduled on 9th January 2011”, Justice Chan Reec told a press conference held in Juba. He said the exercise was conducted peacefully with the exception of an incident in Nasir, Jonglei state, where a referendum official was shot and killed. However, Madut said that this had no connection to his role working for the state’s referendum committee.
Regarding the bombing of northern Bahr-el-Ghazal in southern Sudan by the northern army during the registration process, confirmed by the UN, Madut said that this should be left to politicians to resolve. Madut said four million ballots have been printed in the United Kingdom. He expects them to arrive in Juba in order for distribution throughout Southern Sudan to begin before December 21.
Meanwhile the highest judicial body in Sudan has reportedly accepted a legal challenge presented by a group of lawyers seeking a ruling on alleged violations related to the voter registration process in preparation for the referendum. The Sudanese Media Center (SMC) website, widely believed to be run by intelligence services, quoted Ismail Hassan Haj-Hamad, head of the legal team that filed the challenge as saying that the Sudan Constitutional Court accepted the motion “in form and content”.
Among the arguments put forward by the group are that the referendum law stipulates that registering voters and finalizing the lists should be completed three months prior to the vote. Because the Sudanese national assembly has not passed any amendments to the current law, the voter registration process should be deemed unconstitutional.
Another source at the commission said the SSRC chief Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil has already informed both the NCP and the SPLM of the legal loopholes that exist in the process but received no response. He added that Khalil was directly warned by a handful of NCP officials that they will push for a legal challenge against his commission and it was hinted to him that he should resign.
The NCP alleges that the ex-Southern rebel group is intimidating potential voters so that they don’t register, in order to make it likely that the referendum will result in a vote for secession. Last month, the NCP stressed that they will not recognize the outcome of the referendum if the registration process continues in this non-transparent manner.
Sudan official news agency (SUNA) quoted a court official on Monday as saying that there are five challenges filed so far related to voter registration with the fifth claiming that the 2005 peace agreement is unconstitutional. The latter was reported to have been made by an Egyptian lawmaker. In the worst case scenario, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which controls the South, could decide to unilaterally declare independence or conduct its own referendum. ST