JUBA, Sudan – Preparations for south Sudan’s independence referendum are "on track" with just three days to go before the historic vote, the head of United Nations peacekeepers in the south said on Thursday.
"Everything appears to be on track for the region's 2,638 polling centres, which are scheduled to open at 8 am (0500 GMT) on January 9," said David Gressly, head of the United Nations Mission to Sudan in the south.
"The many sceptics who never thought southern Sudan would be ready to hold its referendum by next Sunday were proven wrong," he told reporters in the regional capital Juba.
Gressly said that violent attacks were running at their lowest level since the 2005 peace agreement that put an end to two decades of civil war between north and south, creating propitious conditions for last month's voter registration and the run-in to the seven days of polling.
"For the last several weeks -- several months probably -- we have seen the lowest level of insecurity in southern Sudan since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement has been signed," he said.
"It has been a very conducive environment for the registration, and we expect the same to continue for the polling period."
"The general security situation is currently stable, generally quiet," said Gressly, although he noted that cattle raiders in Lakes state killed 11 people and wounded 25 last Saturday.
North-south tensions have also eased, he said.
"Tensions along the north-south border have eased over the last three weeks," he said.
"Reports of major troop build-ups on either side of the north-south border appear to have been exaggerated."
Arriving in Sudan on Thursday, former US president Jimmy Carter urged Khartoum to accept peacefully the results of the referendum, regardless of its outcome.
"Just accept the decision of the southerners in the referendum peacefully, no matter whether it is to stay part of Sudan or to form a new nation," said the statesman who heads the Carter Centre, one of the main international bodies charged with monitoring the vote.
Gressly said that returnees from the north are arriving back at a rate of some 2,000 a day, noting that 143,000 had returned since the end of October.
UN praises Sudan rivals for vote progress
The UN Security Council on Thursday praised the rival governments in northern and southern Sudan for surprising the international community with their efforts to make sure the secession vote this weekend goes ahead peacefully.
The UN Security Council said in a statement that members "welcome the progress made towards the holding of a peaceful and credible southern Sudan referendum that reflects the will of the people."
In a rare act of praise for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, the council said members "appreciate" his comments made this week, saying that his government would accept the outcome of the vote.
It also praised an equally conciliatory message from his rival head of the south's government Salva Kiir in his New Year message.
Diplomats said Bashir's attitude has changed as it has become clearer that southern Sudan would vote for the breakup of Africa's biggest nation.
"I think we have got on top of this issue in a way that makes it clear that the international community is expecting this to happen and happen in a peaceful way," said one Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The council urged the two sides to make sure the vote and the count take place "in an atmosphere of peace and calm." It also noted "with deep concern" the lack of agreement on the Abyei region where the self-determination vote has been postponed.
Observers aim for legitimacy of south Sudan vote
With the fate of Africa's largest nation in the balance in the vote on south Sudanese independence that opens on Sunday, a massive training effort has been under way to make sure it is seen as fair.
At centres across the vast region, south Sudanese of all ages have been undergoing instruction on what it takes to staff a polling station properly and what electoral observers should do to ensure it is seen to be done so.
After decades of civil war, views across the south are inevitably strong but election staff are taught they must be scrupulously impartial in the face of the vocal campaign of street posters and marches by independence supporters.
Among the challenges facing polling station staff will be to ensure a largely illiterate electorate knows how to cast their vote without it being deemed spoilt.
An incorrect fold of the ballot paper risks leaving the indelible ink applied to voters' fingerprints on both yes and no sides, leading to its disqualification.
An umbrella group of civic organisations, the Sudanese Network for Democratic Elections (SuNDE), has been conducting a voter education drive in marketplaces and outside churches to make sure voters know how to make their opinion count.
They have also been training up a battery of observers to monitor the conduct of the vote.
Harriet Baka Nathan, one of more than 160 additional observers who underwent an instruction course with SuNDE in the regional capital Juba this week, explained the requirements set to ensure new recruits added to the transparency of the referendum.
"You must sign the non-partisan pledge and you must be Sudanese and 18 years of age and you must be trustworthy," she said.
SuNDE will be fielding more than 2,500 observers at polling stations across the south, 10 times as many as the European Union and the Carter Centre foundation of former US president Jimmy Carter put together.
Their local knowledge and reports on the conduct of the vote in the more far-flung villages are likely to be a major input into the overall assessment of the international missions.
The verdict of the international observer missions is likely to play the determining role in how the outcome of the referendum is seen by the outside world, whether or not it leads to the birth of a new nation this July.
It is not just the majority either way that is at issue but also the turnout -- the 2005 peace deal between north and south that provided for the referendum requires that at least 60 percent of registered voters cast a ballot.
If independence supporters, who include the south's autonomous regional government and its security forces, are seen to have herded voters into polling stations to ensure the quorum has been reached by the end of the week-long polling, any new nation risks being seen as the fruit of an illegitimate birth.
