SUDAN / REFERENDUM PANEL

The UN Secretary-General's Referendum Panel travelled to Juba this week where they visited voter registration sites and met with the president of the semi-autonomous Government of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir. UNIMS

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:41
• Production Date: 18 November 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS ASSISTANCE MISSION IN SUDAN - UNMIS
• Subject Topical: POLITICAL CONDITIONS; POLITICAL MOVEMENTS; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; PEACE AND SECURITY; REFERENDUM
• Geographic Subject: SUDAN
• MAMS Id: U101118g

Description

STORY: SUDAN / REFERENDUM PANEL
TRT: 1:41
SOURCE: UNMIS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 16 NOVEMBER 2010, JUBA, SUDAN

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, area of registration
2. Wide shot, people waiting to register
3. Various shots, Chairman of the UN Referendum Panel Benjamin Mkapa with referendum registration officials
4. Med shot, Mkapa at a moment of silence at the John Garang memorial
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Mkapa, Chairman, UN Secretary-General’s Panel on the Referendum:
“We have been highly impressed by the large turnout that we have witnessed for ourselves, for the registration process especially here in Juba and the people are obviously very enthusiastic, they are very patient, there have been long queues. The process of registration is proceeding well. There will be very little opportunity for fraud from what I have seen.
6. Cutaway, people
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Mkapa, Chairman, UN Secretary-General’s Panel on the Referendum:
“I don’t know if they have been asked but certainly I was a little disappointed yesterday in Khartoum because the two sites that we visited there were very few people if any that were registering and I don’t know if that was by order or their own volition and you know this is a free choice to decide whether to register and therefore whether to vote. I am hoping that they will persuade themselves to let this process go ahead and conclude decisively.”
8. Wide shot, man in crutches registering
9. Various shots, UN Referendum Panel meeting with southern Sudan leader Salva Kiir

Storyline

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s panel tasked with monitoring the upcoming referenda on self-determination in Sudan travelled to Juba in southern Sudan this week to visit voter registration sites and meet with the southern Sudan leader of the Government of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir.

The Juba visit came of the second day of a critical voter registration phase for a referendum in early January 2011.

Voter registration began on 15 November at nearly 3,000 sites across Sudan for the referendum scheduled for 9 January next year on whether Southern Sudan should secede from the rest of the country or remain united with it. Registration also began or is due to start in eight other countries with significant Sudanese populations.

Chairman Mkapa said he was impressed by the enthusiastic numbers of people he saw when he visited a couple of registration centers in Juba town.

SOUNDBITE (English) Chairman of the United Nations Secretary-General’s panel on the Referenda, Benjamin Mkapa
“We have been highly impressed by the large turnout that we have witnessed for ourselves for the registration process especially here in Juba and the people are obviously very enthusiastic, they are very patient, there have been long queues. The process of registration is proceeding well, there will be very little opportunity for fraud from what I have seen.”

Commenting on the few numbers of those registering in Khartoum, he said he hoped the process would conclude decisively.

SOUNDBITE (English) Chairman of the United Nations Secretary-General’s panel on the Referenda, Benjamin Mkapa
“I don’t know if they have been asked but certainly I was a little disappointed yesterday in Khartoum because the two sites that we visited there were very few people if any that were registering - and I don’t know if that was by order or their own volition and you know this is a free choice to decide whether to register and therefore whether to vote. I am hoping that they will persuade themselves to let this process go ahead and conclude decisively.”

The panel also met with Salva Kiir, the leader of the Government of Southern Sudan, where they were briefed on various issues around the referendum process.

The Panel is playing a good offices role on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to strengthen confidence in the Sudanese-led referenda process, and to encourage the parties and relevant authorities to resolve any significant problems or disputes as they emerge.

The Panel’s first visit to Sudan took place last month. It is monitoring two referenda processes, one on Southern Sudan, and one in which the people of the Abyei Area will vote to remain in the north or become part of the south.

Aside from Mkapa, Tanzania’s former President, the Panel’s other members include António Monteiro, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, and Bhojraj Pokharel, a former Chairman of the Election Commission of Nepal. Mkapa and Pokharel arrived in Sudan at the weekend and Ambassador Monteiro will join them later this week.