South Sudan Disagrees with Referendum Vote Limit

Sudan’s semi-autonomous South has rejected a new deal on a referendum to decide whether the region secedes or remains part of a united Sudan.

The new deal agreed last week by South Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar and Khartoum’s second Vice President Ali Osman Taha, requires that two thirds of all registered voters must cast their ballots, and the South must achieve a 50 per cent-plus-one vote for it to become a separate nation.

South Sudanese diplomat John Andruga Duku told a Kenyan newspaper that the two requirements were unacceptable to South Sudan because voting is a voluntary exercise and hoping for a 66 per cent turnout would be a difficult gamble.

This row comes as the US government unveiled a new policy on Monday, promising Sudan rewards if it ends violence in Darfur and fully implements the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) it signed in 2005 with the former rebel Southern rebel SPLM/A.

Negotiated after a 21 year civil war, the CPA gives the Southerners the right to vote in a 2011 plebiscite that will decide whether they secede or remain part of Sudan. [ES]