20110111
xinhua

KHARTOUM, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) on Monday said that the voting rate registered 20 percent in south Sudan's 10 states and 14 percent in north Sudan in the first day of the poll.



The SSRC, in a statement Monday, said that 14 percent of voters out of the total registered 116,860 in the north had cast their votes, while around 786,183 voters cast their ballots in south Sudan out of the total registered 3,930,916 with a rate of 20 percent.

The commission further said that the referendum committees in north Sudan would begin announcement of the results as of Jan. 20, and that the result at the level of north Sudan States will be announced on Jan. 23, while the final result of north Sudan would be declared on Jan. 26.

The SSRC, in its statement, added that the primary results in the three referendum areas (south Sudan, north Sudan and eight overseas countries) will be announced on February 2, explaining that looking into appeals would continue until February 5 and that the final result would be announced on February 7 if there were no judicial appeals.

The reviewing of appeals will last for ten days till February 14 and the final result of the referendum will be announced on February 15, the statement said.

The total number of the registered eligible southern Sudanese voters amounted to 3,930,916, among them 3,753,815 in south Sudan, 116,860 in north Sudan and 60,241 in eight overseas countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Australia, the United States, Britain and Canada.