Sudan Extends Voters' Registration After Huge Turnout

Sudan Extends Voters' Registration After Huge Turnout

Sudanese authorities have said that southerners have an extra week to register for a referendum on the independence of the region, following a huge turn out of people who wanted to register.

The have however promised that the extension would not delay the January 9 vote.

The referendum's organising commission told newsmen that they would extend registration by a week because some registration centres in the south, overwhelmed by the huge turnout, had run out of forms and needed more time to restock.

The referendum gives people from the oil-producing south the chance to decide whether they should secede or stay part of Sudan , a vote promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war.

The south, which is widely expected to choose independence, has refused to accept any postponement of the vote.

Mistrust and accusations

Distrust between the two sides remains deep and the south's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) has accused Khartoum of trying to disrupt the vote to keep control of the region's oil.

South Sudan accused the northern army of carrying out an air strike on Wednesday in an attempt to derail the referendum.

The north's army and the ruling National Congress Party, led by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is campaigning for unity, have dismissed the accusations.

REUTERS/Evelyn/Yinka