South Sudan reaches 60% turnout needed to pass the referendum

PanARMENIAN.Net - South Sudan has reached the 60% turnout needed to pass the referendum on secession from the north, the south's ruling party and ex-rebel group says.

"The 60% threshold has been achieved but we are asking for a 100% (turnout)," the SPLM's Anne Itto said. She did not give exact figures, but said it was based on polling centre reports for the first three days of the week-long vote.

The poll was agreed as part of the 2005 deal to end the two-decade civil war. The Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement have been running the region since that peace agreement.

Official turnout figures - which along with the preliminary result, are not expected until the beginning of February - are the responsibility of the South Sudan Referendum Commission. But the commission said on Wednesday, January 12, it expected the vote, in which only southerners are taking part, to exceed the 60% mark, BBC reported.