Yei County voter turn-out already over 60 percent
by Akim Mugisa
The Voter turn-out so far registered in all polling centres in Yei River County has passed the 60% threshold that is one of the two key requirements to confirm the validity of the Southern Sudan Referendum, according to officials in Yei.
\”Even those in a distance of six miles away have sent communication that they will be coming.”
Chairperson of Ligi Polling Centre in Mugwo Payam
Polling officials in Yei have said by the end of the second day of voting over two thirds of registered voters in their centres had already cast their ballots. “We are still waiting for the remaining voters. Even those in a distance of six miles away have sent communication that they will be coming”, said the Chairperson of Ligi polling centre in Mugwo Payam.
At Bekajo centre, 324 voters had already voted out of 452 registered voters – a turn-out of 71.3 percent by the end of the second day. Sixty-seven percent of eligible voters at Mundumude polling centre, about 17 miles from Yei town, had also placed their thumbs on the ballot paper by the 5:00 pm official closing time.
Queues of voters in the hundreds were still standing at polling centres in urban areas while visits by Sudanvotes to centres in rural areas witnessed a minimal turn-outs of even less than 15 voters in an hour. At most of the 58 centres in the County, polling officials lay on benches, cracked jokes and cross-checked their records while some were found playing a game of cards with the blue-jacket local observers of Sudan Network for Democratic Elections (SUNDE).
A referendum official of the Subcommittee in Yei, Justin Modi, had to re-deploy some polling staffs to urban centres that were still struggling with fairly long queues in order to speed up the voting.
With more that 60 percent of the registered voters having already voted in the opening days in Yei, it is evident that the requirement of 50 percent plus one vote vote, for either unity or secession, will now be the determining factor in deciding between the two options of unity and secession.
60 percent turn-out of all registered voters is a requirement for the recognition of the referendum, according to the referendum act.
Article 41 section 2 (b) states that if the 60 percent turn-out of all registered voters, or the 50 percent plus one vote simple majority, are not realised in the first round of elections, the referendum would be repeated within a period of sixty days as from the declaration of final results.
According to the Southern Sudan Referendum Act of 2009, sorting and counting of ballots cast during the weeklong exercise is supposed to start soon after closure of polling on the final day set for January 15.
Due to the volume of work in sorting, counting, transmitting and compilation of results, Southern Sudanese will have to anxiously wait for days and weeks before their choice is declared by the Referendum Commission.
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