Vast crowds of jubilant south Sudanese turned out to vote yesterday in a landmark referendum expected to create the world’s newest state, forcing many polling stations to stay open into the evening for those still queuing.
Organisers acknowledged that the queues were too long and that women and the elderly were given no preference on the first day of the seven-day vote.
Thousands of voters had begun waiting in the early hours, eager to be among the first to have their say on whether the impoverished south should finally break away from rule by Khartoum, ending five decades of conflict between north and south.
When the polls finally opened at 8 a.m., the excitement was electric. Each time another vote was inserted in the ballot box, women began ululating in celebration.
Southern leaders had urged voters to turn out en masse on the first day. The 2005 peace deal requires a turnout of at least 60 per cent for the referendum to be valid. The outcome will then be decided by simple majority.
A few voters wore their opinions on their chests with T-shirts demanding independence. Most donned the Western suits and brightly coloured floral dresses normally reserved for church in this largely Christian region, but they showed no less enthusiasm for separation from the Muslim, mainly Arab north.
While the first day of voting proceeded generally peacefully, an official said clashes between renegade militiamen and south Sudanese troops disrupted voting in part of the key oil Unity state, which abuts the north-south border.
“There has been some fighting because of certain militiamen but I am assured that the situation has been contained,” said the organising commission number two, Chan Reec.
“I am optimistic that this will not impact the voting process,” he added.
Mr Reec, who had earlier been effusive about the massive turnout, later appealed for more consideration to be shown to women and the elderly.
“I would appeal to our traditions of respect towards women to offer them priority if they have toddlers or small children,” he said.
Polls had been scheduled to closed at 5 p.m., but many polling stations visited by AFP in the regional capital Juba stayed open for another two hours or more to deal with the huge backlog of eager voters.
Some 3.75 million people are registered to vote in the south and around 117,000 in north Sudan, the majority in the capital Khartoum. Emigres were also able to vote in eight countries abroad.
The independence referendum is the centrepiece of the 2005 north-south peace deal that ended a devastating 22-year civil war in which some two million people were killed and another four million fled their homes.
South Sudanese president Salva Kiir was among the first to cast his ballot in the regional capital Juba.
“This is the historic moment the people of south Sudan have been waiting for,” Mr Kiir said, holding up his hand to reporters to show the indelible ink that demonstrated he had voted.
US envoys Scott Gration and John Kerry as well as Hollywood star George Clooney watched as Mr Kiir voted at a polling station set up at the memorial to late rebel leader John Garang in Juba.
It was Mr Garang who signed the 2005 peace agreement that provided for yesterday’s referendum, shortly before his death in a mysterious helicopter crash on his way back from Uganda.
His widow Rebecca said: “I have mixed feelings about this day for I know that my husband did not die in vain and I know that freedom has a price.”
Yar Mayon, who grew up in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, said: “I came here in the early morning because I wanted to show just how much I wanted to vote.”
As the sun rose, another voter, Wilson Santino said: “This is a new dawn because we vote for our freedom.”
After touring a polling station with ex-US president Jimmy Carter, former UN chief Kofi Annan said: “It is important that the energy and enthusiasm lead to solid results that are accepted by everybody.”
Britain, Norway and the US, the three main Western brokers of the Sudanese peace process, welcomed the commitment of President Omar al-Bashir to respect the outcome of the vote, which they described as a “historic step”.
“We are encouraged by the strong public commitments of both Presidents Bashir and Kiir to continue negotiations on post-referendum issues and to foster cooperation between the north and south regardless of the referendum result,” a joint statement by the three governments’ top diplomats said.
Mr Bashir, an army man who led the north’s war effort against the south for a decade and a half before signing the 2005 peace deal, has said he will respect the outcome of the vote if it is “free and transparent.”