South Kordofan will re-do population census

The census will be redone in South Kordofan, a state on the border between North and South Sudan. The Presidency of the Republic decided that the counting will take place during May and June, according to Ahmed Harun, governor of the state. The census is used to determine the constituency boundaries for elections. The two main parties in the state had disagreed about the credibility of the original census count. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, a former rebel group that controlled and administered some areas of the state during the civil war, had claimed that the original census count excluded large areas where there are many SPLM supporters. Elections for the governorship and state legislative assembly were not held during the 11-15 April nationwide elections but were instead postponed.

The election for the state assembly is particularly significant because during the coming year the assembly is supposed to hold a so-called ‘Popular Consultation’ on whether to accept the north-south peace agreement (CPA) or seek to re-negotiate parts of it. If the legislature decides that it is dissatisfied with constitutional, political or administrative arrangements of the CPA, then it could negotiate with the national government to modify the agreement. However, the scope of the powers of the legislature to re-negotiate the status of the state is poorly defined in the CPA.

(Photo by Rita Willaert, Flickr)