Sudan’s split ‘virtually certain’

The largest foreign poll observer mission said on Monday that the secession of south Sudan was “virtually certain” as polling stations wrapped up their counts in a landmark independence vote it said had been credible.

The Carter Centre foundation of former US president Jimmy Carter also said the week-long referendum on partitioning Africa’s largest nation and creating the world’s newest state in July had broadly met international standards.

The European Union’s observer mission said the vote had been “peaceful and credible” but added that it would only judge whether it had met international criteria after the count had been completed.

The referendum, the result of a 2005 peace deal, was to decide on whether the the mainly Christian, African south would separate from the mainly Arab, Muslim north after five decades of conflict.

“Based on early reports of vote counting results, it appears virtually certain that the results will be in favour of secession,” the Carter Centre said as polling stations across the south were due to complete their counts.

“Overall, the referendum process to this point has been successful and broadly consistent with international standards,” it added.

Partial results from the southern regional capital Juba showed a landslide for independence, but the final verdict is not expected before next month after the votes have been collated from across the vast, war-ravaged region.

“The results of the polls are still being collected and there can be no official result of the referendum at this time,” organising commission deputy chairman Chan Reec told AFP.

“Preliminary results for the south are expected to be released at the end of January and the final results on February 14,” he added, speaking by telephone from a boat on the White Nile near the southern town of Malakal.

The EU observer mission said the vote had been “peaceful and credible.”

“If I had to summarise the conduct of the referendum, I would say free and peaceful voting took place, with an overwhelming turnout,” the EU mission’s chief, Veronique de Keyser, told a Khartoum news conference.

“It is expected that the initial turnout will be significantly in excess of the 60 percent required to validate the referendum,” she said, adding that there had been “only isolated cases of intimidation” by security officials at polling stations.

The observer mission of the six-nation east African bloc that sponsored the talks that led to the 2005 peace deal which provided for the independence vote said it had been “free, fair and credible.”

“We are also satisfied that the counting was done in a free and transparent manner,” Intergovernmental Authority on Development team leader Yusuf Nzibo said in the southern regional capital Juba. Asked about the results, he said: “We cannot provide a verdict before the (organising) commission has announced that.” Polling stations across the south were due to complete their counts on Monday, triggering the huge logistical effort of bringing in the ballots to centres in a region that has just 40 kilometres (25 miles) of paved road.

In Juba, the first voting centres to post their results all returned huge majorities for breaking away.At Juba University it was 2,663 votes for secession to 69 votes against. In the city’s Hay Malakal neighbourhood it was 1,809 to 75.

A UN panel set up to monitor the referendum cautioned that “while the Sudanese would want to know the outcome of the referendum quickly, we urge the people of Sudan to be patient and be aware that only the results announced by the referendum authorities are official.”

The panel also stressed the importance of the protection of civilians following ambushes of southerners returning from the north for the referendum resulted in at least 10 people being killed.

The deaths were part of an upsurge of violence in and around the disputed district of Abyei on the northern border that had been due to hold a plebiscite on its own future alongside the southern referendum. It has been indefinitely postponed.

AFP