The Southern Sudan Electoral Committee has announced that more than three million voters have registered during the period of the voter registration exercise, which ends in two days time.
Senior member of the Electoral committee, Jersa Kaddi said ,”The exercise has been successful. Many people turned up. That shows they want to determine the destiny of their country through voting. The percentage of those registered has reached 78 per cent of the expected number so far.”
Southern Sudanese living in Uganda, Kenya and some other selected countries have also been registered so that they participate in the elections to take place next year in Sudan.
The Khartoum government had at first been adamant to allow Southern Sudanese living outside their country to register from their resident countries, leading to threats by semi-atonomous government of southern Sudan to boycot the elections.
Khartoum government gave in and accepted them to be registered.
In a related development, the south Sudan Judges Commission is meeting in Juba to look into complaints concerning the voter registration process.
An official of the commission, David Odit said, “A cross section of civilians and organizations complained that the voters’ registration was not carried out in some remote places. Others say that some people were not allowed to register. We are looking in all those complaints.”
A specialized conference on elections was recently held. The conference brought together members of the al Electoral Commission and international partners.
At least 4 million southern Sudanese are expected to be registered by the end of the registration exercise.
