UN Delivers Sudan Referendum Ballots

UN Delivers Sudan Referendum Ballots

The UN has delivered ballots for next month's independence referendum in Southern Sudan .

A top official UN Development Programme (UNDP), George Conway said ballots for more than four million voters, with each ballot carrying two pictures: one hand signifying independence and two hands standing for unity, had been supplied.  
   
A UN statement said the weather conditions in Europe had threatened the delivery of the ballots, printed in the United Kingdom , for the January 9 th to January 15 th vote.

The statement, however, noted that the ballots arrived on schedule in Juba, Southern Sudan 's capital, last week.

The UN Integrated Referendum and Electoral Division, the UNDP and the UN Mission in Sudan  handed over the ballots to local referendum authorities.

Conway expressed delight that the UNDP had been able to deliver such a major component of the referendum on schedule, given the compressed time-frame for delivery and logistics challenges.

He said ballots were also delivered in Khartoum , Sudan 's capital, for southerners living in the north.

Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau Chairman, Chan Reec Madut, thanked international donors for contributing 58 million dollars to a UN fund to finance the referendum.

The election climaxes a six-year peace process that ended two decades of civil war between the north and south of Sudan .

NAN/Yinka