SUDAN / VOTER REGISTRATION

Voter registration comes to a close in Sudan just a month before the scheduled 9 January referendum. For the last 24 days, southern Sudanese have been lining up across to the country to register and be a part of the upcoming referendum that will determine whether the south secedes from the north. UNMIS

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:29
• Production Date: 8 December 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS ASSISTANCE MISSION IN SUDAN - UNMIS
• Subject Topical: PEACE AND SECURITY; REFERENDUM
• Geographic Subject: SUDAN
• MAMS Id: U101208i

Description

STORY: SUDAN / VOTER REGISTRATION
TRT: 1:29
SOURCE: UNMIS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 8 DECEMBER 2010, JUBA, SUDAN

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, new arrivals at registration centre
2. Med shot, luggage at the centre
3. Wide shot, new arrivals from Khartoum
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Stefana Wani, Student from Khartoum:
“There is registration going on in the north, but we came here to registers and vote so that we strength this country in order to be free and independent.”
5. Med shot, Stefana Wani showing off her registration card
6. Wide shot, crowed registration centre
7. Close up, registration
8. Med shot, people at the registration centre
9. Close up, registration book
10. Wide shot, Justice Chan inspecting registration centre
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Justice Chan Reec Madut, Chairman Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau(SSRB):
“We have gone a long way, there is nothing to change that date because ballots are being manufactured, we have registered, and everybody is in the mood. I don’t see any reason, I am not contemplating any postponement at all.”
12. Med shot, people registration
13. Med shot, people in line

Storyline

Voter registration comes to a close in Sudan with just a month to go for the scheduled 9 January referendum. Southern Sudanese have been for the last 24 days lining up across the country to get registered and be a part of the plebiscite that will either see Sudan stay united as one country or see the South secede into Africa’s newest nation.

Thousands of southern Sudanese opted to make the journey from the north to south in order to get registered.

As the hours count down to the end of the registration process, people were still arriving in Juba, the capital of the semi–autonomous south, hoping to beat the 5 p.m. deadline.

Those who turned out to register on the final day included those who where away from their area within southern Sudan, people who reside in neighbouring countries, new arrival from northern Sudan and others who couldn’t make it earlier due to various reasons.

Stefana Wani is a student in Khartoum; she just arrived in Juba and like others rushed to the centre to get registered.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Stefana Wani, Student from Khartoum:
“There is registration going on in the north, but we came here to registers and vote so that we strength this country in order to be free and independent.”

The Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau (SSRB) announced the official closing of voter registration on Wednesday, 8 December and disclosed that over three million have registered in southern Sudan, more than 105,000 in the north and more than 40,000 in Diaspora.

Tall Security Group, a company based in the United Kingdom won the bid to print ballot papers for the Southern Sudan’s Referendum, amidst fears that a late reopening of the bid could delay the process. The referendum commission announced that they would be able to meet the 9 January date and hold the referendum on time.

During the official closing ceremony at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, chairman of the SSRB stated that the registration went well and expressed his confidence about the arrival of the ballot papers on time.

SOUNDBITE (English), Justice Chan Reec Madut, Chairman Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau (SSRB):
“We have gone a long way, there is nothing to change that date because ballots are being manufactured, we have registered, and everybody is in the mood. I don’t see any reason, I am not contemplating any postponement at all.”

The official figures of the registration process are to be announced in a few days. The referendum is part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement struck between north and south Sudan in 2005 that ended decades of war.