Observers Declare Sudan Voting a Success

18 January 2011

One of the European Union Chief Observers Veronique de Keyser leaves a press conference in Khartoum, Sudan, 17 Jan 2011

The Carter Center, European Union and African Union, have all called voting in the referendum peaceful, fair and transparent. Each organization’s preliminary results were released within two days of the end of voting and do not include any observations from the ongoing counting process.

There were smiles on the faces of Southern Sudan officials when the head EU observer, Veronique de Keyser, read off her team’s findings Tuesday in Juba.

"The headline of our preliminary statement is: 'Peaceful, credible voting process with overwhelming turnout mark Southern Sudan referendum," said De Keyser.

The referendum organizing commission announced on the last day of voting that turnout had reached above 80 percent in the south. Only 60 percent of the almost four million registered voters needed to turnout for the vote to be valid.

The referendum on southern independence is the centerpiece of a 2005 peace deal between north and south Sudan. The agreement ended 21 years of civil war that took about two million lives and displaced about four million people.

Southerners were given the chance to choose whether to stay united with the north or form their own country. Early returns from southerners who voted in Europe, Australia and Kenya and a small sampling of voting centers in Juba indicate more than 90 percent are in favor of secession.