Abyei Forum To Discuss Abyei Referendum Begins Simultaneously With Southern Voter Registration

16 November 2010 – (Juba) – While the referendum voters’ registration started on Monday in southern Sudan and abroad, a forum on Abyei also started at the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly in Juba to discuss the Abyei referendum issues.

The two CPA partners, the NCP and SPLM have not been able to reach a consensus over who is eligible to vote in the Abyei referendum which is supposed to take place simultaneously with the southern Sudan referendum on 9th January 2011.

The issue has now been referred to the presidency.

The first Vice President and President of the Government of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit opened the forum.

[Salva Kiir]: “These utterances that let the case of Abyei be isolated from the case of the rest of the south, is not true and will never be sold to anybody. My last word to the community of the Ng’ok Dinka is that you should not be despair. Don’t despair because you are not being registered today. This thing should not take us to violence. The youth must remain patient and must be cautioned not to take the law into their own hands. Let us follow it the way we are following it until we fail to resolve it, then we will come and sit and tell you that we have reached the end of the road in finding a peaceful solution to this problem.”

Charles Abyei, the speaker of the Abyei Legislative Council told SRS that he does not expect any positive outcome from the presidency regarding Abyei.

[Charles Abyei]: “This is a delaying tactic from the NCP because who is in the presidency? It is the president who is saying that the referendum in Abyei will not take place unless the Misseriya are made voters. So we don’t expect anything to come out from the presidency. The fact that NCP doesn’t want to make it, will not make the people of Abyei just sit and watch. There are feelings that if NCP doesn’t want us to have our referendum, then we must also seek for other options.”

Charles Abyei says the resolutions of the forum will be based on the implementation of the Abyei protocol on Abyei Referendum.