When is the sudanese referendum

Final results from the January vote, which Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said he will accept, are expected early next month.

If the result is confirmed, the new country is set to formally declare its independence on 9 July. Hundreds of officials and diplomats gathered in Juba at the grave of rebel leader John Garang for the first official announcement of the results.

The revered South Sudanese leader died in a plane crash just days after signing the January peace agreement ending more than 20 years of conflict between the black Christian-dominated south and the mainly Arab Muslim north. According to the commission website, 3,, votes were cast during the week-long ballot. The resolution mandates UNMISS to consolidate peace and security, and to help establish the conditions for development with a view to strengthening the capacity of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan to govern effectively and democratically and establish good relations with its neighbours.

On 17 May , the Secretary-General urged the parties and the Security Council to consider a three-month extension of UNMIS due to ongoing security concerns in South Sudan that were directly related to security issues that the North and South had to address together. A separate referendum to determine whether the future of the area of Abyei lies in northern or southern Sudan was not held in January as originally planned, as a result of a failure to establish a referendum commission and lack of agreement on who could vote.

The Security Council was deeply concerned by the violence, escalating tensions and population displacement. People living in the South of the country were called to choose whether to remain within the existing borders of current Sudan or secede and have their own country. External observers from the Arab League, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development IGAD and the EU declared that a large participation was recorded and the vote went by in a peacefully and orderly manner, despite worries about possible disorders.

Notwithstanding this vote marks the final phase of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement CPA , some key issues are still dangling and need to be addressed during a post-conflict negotiation process.

This should cope with priorities such as the definition of a clear demarcation of boundaries and natural resources partition. Another matter of international concern has to do with the IDPs returning from the North to the South and the fact that questions of citizenship and nationality have not been defined yet.

The ruling National Congress Party NCP has proposed a strict policy that implies the loss of Northern nationality for any person allowed to vote for the referendum. This could lead to discriminations and expulsions on ethnic and racial base, a fact that makes observers fear a wave of mass violence like in the case of Rwanda in