20110115
xinhua

KHARTOUM, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan referendum's polling process entered its seventh day on Saturday and South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) excluded any trend to extend the polling period that started on Jan. 9.

Polling centers in all parts of Sudan and eight overseas countries are expected to close their doors on Saturday at local time 6:00 p.m. (1500 GMT). Meanwhile, the SSRC earlier affirmed that the voting rate has surpassed 60 percent, which is required for the referendum to be legal and for its result to be accepted.

Khartoum's Al Sahafa daily reported Saturday that the voting rate in south Sudan, until Friday, registered 82 percent.

In this respect, Chairman of South Sudan Referendum Bureau in the south Chan Rieg told reporters in Juba, capital of south Sudan that "the voting is progressing well and without any barrier."

He added that the result of the referendum would be announced as planned by the SSRC on Jan. 31 in south Sudan, while the final result would be announced in Khartoum on Feb. 14 in case there were no appeals, but he did not exclude that there could be leaks about the result after closing of the voting process.

According to SSRC officials, some polling centers in south Sudan started to coordinate with the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) to train the heads of the centers on how to count the votes prior to monitor the results.

To this end, UNMIS spokesman Zarouq Kuwaidir said in a statement Saturday that the mission was concerned with provision of all means to facilitate the referendum process including technical, logistical and training assistance together with transportation of the polling materials from the remote areas to the major centers.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose center participate in the referendum with a great number of observers, said that the voting rate was legal and urged the international community to exempt Sudan, north and south, from its debts and give them further loans as incentives.

The total number of the registered eligible southern Sudanese voters amounted to 3,930,916, of 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.

The polling centers in north and south Sudan together with eight overseas countries amounted to 3,000 with three SSRC officers in each to supervise the voting process.

Around 17,000 local observers together with 1,200 foreign observers are monitoring the south Sudan referendum which is the major item in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), inked in January 2005 between north and south Sudan, which ended a two- decade civil war between the two sides.