Parliament adopts law allowing referendum on southern independence

Sudan's parliament has passed a long-disputed law that will allow for a vote on southern Sudan's independence after months of wrangling between north and south coalition government leaders. The referendum will likely take place in January 2011.

AFP - The Sudanese parliament adopted a key law paving the way for a promised 2011 referendum on southern independence Tuesday after northern and southern leaders struck a deal on a disputed article.
  
The new version of the law approved by MPs includes a provision demanded by southern politicians that requires diaspora southerners to cast their ballots in the south.
  
A previous version adopted last week had allowed for absentee votes, prompting a walkout from parliament by southern politicians fearful that if southerners voted in the north there could be fraud and pressure by the Khartoum government.
  
The United States had said it was "deeply concerned" that the earlier text had been stripped of the wording previously agreed with southern politicians.
  
The promised independence vote is a key plank of a 2005 peace deal which put an end to two decades of civil war between north and south.
 

Date created : 2009-12-29