Voting begins in Southern Sudan

January 10, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

JUBA, Sudan

After decades of war, Southern Sudanese turned out in triumphant droves in this future capital city Sunday to begin voting on whether to declare independence, but clashes along Sudan’s disputed north-south border put a damper on the otherwise- joyful celebrations.

At least nine people had died by late Saturday in fighting that has raged for three days in Abyei, a key border area, officials confirmed Sunday.

In Southern Sudan’s capital, Juba, the first day of the weeklong voting process was peaceful and orderly. Lines outside polling stations reached into the thousands as people snaked through open yards and poured into the street.

“This is what we fought for,” said Joseph Chunduk, a 36-year old former rebel dressed in civilian clothes and hundreds of people back from the front of the line despite arriving at 3 a.m. “I’m standing here for my freedom.”

The polling centers buzzed with excitement. Some voters camped overnight to be first in line. Young people danced and waved the southern flag. Some voters pumped their fists emphatically into the air after casting their ballot.

“The people have been quite peaceful, and apparently very happy,” former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose Atlanta-based Carter Center is observing the referendum, said in Juba on Sunday .

Carter said he foresaw no problems that would threaten the integrity of the final outcome. The vote is expected to go overwhelmingly in favor of secession.

The ecstatic mood flows from a deeply scarred past. For 50 years, rebels in Sudan’s south fought the country’s central government in Khartoum in the north. Two million people, primarily southern, are thought to have died in the conflict through violence, famine, and disease.