Millions vote for south Sudan's new chapter

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Millions vote for south Sudan's new chapter
Sudan's southerners started casting ballots Sunday to decide the fate of unity or division of the African's largest country where two-decades of north-south war claimed two million lives.A majority of registered voters are estimated to vote for seceding Sudan's Christian-Animist south from the mostly Muslim north in the week-long referendum,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a major item in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) inked between the two sides.
Voters lined up for hundreds of meters to wait for the beginning, which many say is a historic moment for Sudan. Women danced and sang slogans of "Freedom is burning" ahead of the referendum.The vote started at polling centers in both south and north at 8:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will last at 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) till its expected end on Jan. 15.
Salva Kiir Mayardit,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], first vice president of Sudan and president of the government of South Sudan, cast the first ballot in Juba at a polling station at the museum of John Garang,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], founder of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM),[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the south's ruling party.The security of voting centers must be guaranteed,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], he said after the voting. "Security forces in the south and north Sudan must make sure the security of the voting."
He noted that the property of the northern Sudanese and foreigners in south Sudan must be protected, which won applauses among the cheering crowd.The southern Sudanese residing in north and south Sudan and overseas have the right to participate in the referendum where 60 percent of the registered voters should cast their votes for the referendum to be valid.
If the southerns voted for independence,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Sudan would enter a six-month transition period when the north and south would negotiate on thorny issues including border demarcation,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the status of the oil-rich Abyei region,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], as well as the division of the national debts and oil revenue.Almost 4 million people registered for the referendum,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 95 percent of whom live in south Sudan,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], while others live in the north and eight countries including Kenya, Egypt,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Ethiopia, and the U.S.A.
John Kerry,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, told Xinhua while he observed the voting process,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], "I'm very excited. It's very important. I hope it will be a peaceful referendum."Asked about the controversial issues including border, oil and Abyei,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Kerry said,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], "I think the controversial issues can be resolved within the six-month transition period as we work in good faith."
Around 17,000 local observers together with 1,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],200 foreign observers are currently monitoring the south Sudan referendum to assess its compliance with the international standards.Trained polling staff directed voters to check their identity cards and illustrated how to cast ballots as 92 percent of the southern residents are illiterate. Young men and women wearing shirts with slogans "Vote peacefully" and "Vote for freedom" marched in Juba streets.
Deng Ayok, a 28-year-old university student who suspended his study in Khartoum,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Sudan's capital,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and returned to the south in November, led his family to vote at Juba University Sunday morning.The civil war forced him to become a refugee at three years old. His mother fled with him to Ethiopia, while his father joined the army of the SPLM to fight in the bush for 20 years.
"I hope the referendum can reflect our will and lead to a permanent peace and stability of all Sudanese people,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," he said. " We had suffered so much during the civil war. We need dignity and human rights in a peaceful and stable land."Barnaba Benjamin, minister of information and spokesman of the southern Sudanese government,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], expressed his confidence in an interview with Xinhua on Saturday that the southern Sudanese would vote for the independence of the region in the referendum.He held the successive northern governments responsible for failure to boost the emotion for unity among the southern Sudanese citizens since country's independence in 1956.
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[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]