JUBA, Sudan, (Reuters) – Millions of jubilant south Sudanese voted yesterday in an independence referendum which could cut Africa’s biggest country in two and deprive the north of most of its lucrative oil.
People queued for hours in the burning sun outside polling stations in the southern capital Juba, and many were turned away as the first day of voting ended in the week-long ballot.
“This is the moment the people of southern Sudan have been waiting for,” southern president Salva Kiir said after casting his ballot, urging people to be patient as they waited to vote.
The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal ending a civil war which has raged on and off since 1955, fuelled by oil and ethnicity, between the mostly Muslim north and the south, where most people follow Christianity and traditional beliefs.
The war left two million dead and displaced four million people and Southerners view the poll as a new beginning after decades of strife and perceived repression by north Sudan.
“I am voting for separation,” said Nhial Wier, a veteran of the north-south civil war that led up to the vote. “This day marks the end of my struggles. In the army I was fighting for freedom. I was fighting for separation.”
Polls closed at 1400 GMT on Sunday but from Monday, voting hours would be extended until 1500 GMT, the electoral commission said. Most centres have no power so voting ends at sundown.
