More than 98 percent of voters in Southern Sudan vote for independence
Juba, Sudan (AHN) – Southern Sudan has voted overwhelmingly to become an independent nation, according to preliminary results.
More than 98 percent of voters in the region chose to secede from Sudan in northeastern Africa, the initial tally maintained by the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission showed.
Sixty percent of the region’s 3.9 million registered voters were required for secession.
Votes from some areas, including 27 percent from the south, have not been counted. The SSRC is scheduled to declare the final results on Feb. 14.
The election ended last Saturday with international observers praising the way elections were conducted.
The referendum was held as part of a 2005 peace agreement that established a provisional government shared by the Muslim-dominated northern region and the mostly Christian and oil-rich south. The two sides were engaged in civil war for decades until the accord mediated by the United States.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which led the fight for autonomy in the second civil war between the north and south, had declared as early as the third day of voting that the 60 percent threshold had been passed.
Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has said he will abide by the election results. Bashir was charged in 2008 by the International Criminal Court with genocide for his role in the crisis in the western region of Darfur, where civilians from non-Arab tribes have been under attack by rebels.
Independence would mean the Southern Sudan, which is more impoverished than the north and lacks basic services such as water and primary schools, gains control of about 80 percent of Sudan’s oil reserves.
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