SSRC acknowledges that 10 counties in South Sudan had more votes than voters

January 23, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) on Sunday admitted that vote count revealed some parts of the semi-autonomous region had a voter turnout that exceeded 100% of the registered voters.

A priest at Juba’s cathedral shows signs reading ’Unity’ and ’Separation’ during Sunday mass on January 16, 2011 (AFP)

An analysis done by Associated Press (AP) showed several of these cases occuring in 10 of the south’s 79 counties using information available on SSRC’s website.

In Jonglei state’s Bor County, the number of votes cast exceeded the number of registered voters by 720, AP said.

International observers who monitored the vote which concluded last week said the process was credible.

Justice Chan Reec Madut, who heads the southern bureau of the SSRC, said results from stations that recorded more than 105 percent turnout would be quarantined.

But Madut said that even if the commission throws out votes from counties where over-votes were recorded, “the trend is clear,” meaning that the south has voted for secession.

The SSRC official said investigations into the quarantined results from 33 polling stations are underway. There were more than 2,600 polling stations across Sudan.

“There will be no problem I think, [but] we want to do work that satisfies our own conscience,” Madut said.

The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) despite earlier threats that only a transparent and credible voting will get their recognition, decided this week that they will not object to the outcome after reviewing the process.

SSRC was working under a very tight timeline because of delay in adopting referendum law and later because of disagreement between North and South on the commission’s composition.

(ST)

Article source: http://www.sudantribune.com/SSRC-acknowledges-that-10-counties,37731