Referendum Preparations Have Started, Says GOSS Minister

26 July 2010 - (Juba) – The GOSS Minister for Peace and CPA implementation Pagan Amum says the Government of Southern Sudan is establishing organs necessary for the forthcoming referendum.

Pagan who is also the chairman of the South Sudan Referendum Commission spoke to SRS in Juba on Friday.

[Pagan Amum]: “The two parties reiterated their commitment to conduct the referendum in time; by 9th of January 2011. So the Southern Sudan Bureau for Southern Sudan referendum is engaged; they have already started. They are now receiving support from the United Nations, and the Government of Southern Sudan has availed resources. All the preparations are on to set up offices of the referendum in states creating structures and employing staff to start the organization of the process. The number one activity will be registration of the eligible voters. This work will receive support from the international community. The number two task will be to publish those registers and provide them to all polling centers. Number three activity will be to produce all materials for the referendum. The last task will be the actual voting, and then the tabulation of the results and its announcement. The results will be announced in every station and the official announcement would be by the 15th of February.”

Pagan said that after the referendum, there will be a post-referendum interim period of 6 months, after which, on 7th of July 2011, the referendum results will determine if Sudan will remain united or break into two separate states.