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| Africa Horn |
| Abyei may hold own vote |
| 2010-11-24 |
| [Al Jazeera] The paramount chief of the Dinka Ngok rustics, from Sudan's Abyei region, has said his oil-rich territory could organise its own referendum on its future if authorities fail to reach agreement on the details of a planned ballot. Abyei is supposed to vote on whether the region will be part of north or south Sudan on January 9 next year, as the south of the country decides if it will secede. Most commentators believe the southerners will vote for independence and that the Abyei plebiscite will effectively be a vote on whether to join South Sudan as it breaks away. However, The infamous However... a dispute between authorities in the north and south over who will organise the referendum and who will be allow to take part is casting doubts over whether the Abyei vote will take place. The southern position is that members of the the Dinka Ngok tribe and other residents should vote in the plebiscite. The north, however, argues that the nomadic Arab Misseriya who travel south to Abyei for a few months every year to graze cattle must also be included. "We are waiting for our affairs to be solved. If not we want to make our referendum by ourselves legally - we will do it," Kuol Deng Kuol, the highest chief of the Dinka Ngok, told the Rooters news agency in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "After the end of this month we expect if nothing happens maybe we will take steps forward," he said, speaking after his tribe's congress. Abyei has become a sticking point that threatens the north-south grinding of the peace processor, which ended two decades of civil war in 2005, under which the southern referendum is being held. High-level talks have so far failed to reach a compromise between the two parties. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 DO IT NOW. Vote prior to referendum. Do it prior to vote if you can. Make that count. Enough smoke and mirrors - you have a week to try it. Please make this nightmare go away. |
| Posted by: newc 2010-11-24 01:19 |