SPLM Denies Claims Of Threatening Southerners To Register In The North

19 November 2010 – (Juba) – The SPLM spokesperson has denied claims that the party is threatening southerners not to register in the north.

Yien Mathew has attributed the low registration turnout by southerners in the north because of a lack of a favorable atmosphere in the region.

Since the registration began, senior NCP officials have blamed the SPLM of trying to sabotage the registration exercise in the north.

Yien Mathew spoke to SRS on Friday from Juba.

[Yien Mathew]: “First of all the SPLM has nothing to do with telling people that they should register. It is the SPLM who signed the CPA and we are very happy that people are getting to the registration. However, Nafie is saying that actually to hide their plan to force southerners to register. Because we realized that southerners are not wishing to register in the north simply because they do not believe that atmosphere is conducive for them to do that. They have seen that some people have actually come to them coercively asking them to go and register. This is not going to happen. The registration is done voluntarily. Therefore if the southerners feel they should not register because the atmosphere is not conducive they shouldn’t do it. That is good because even if they do that there votes may be rigged tomorrow, who knows.”

The registration exercise which began on this week on Monday has witnessed a low turnout of southerners going to register in the north.