Darfur votes against reunification of five states into one entity

The Darfur region in western Sudan has voted in a referendum against reunification of its five states into one entity.

According to Press TV, the organizers of the referendum, which was held from April 11 to 13, said Saturday that almost 98 percent of the voters chose to keep the present multi-state administrative system in place.

Referendum Commission Chief Omar Ali Jamaa said "97.72 percent voted for five states."

The commission chief added that out of 3.21 million eligible voters, 3.08 million voters participated in the referendum.

The referendum had been boycotted by Darfur’s main ethnic minority insurgent groups striving for greater autonomy and opposed to the central government in Khartoum.

The insurgents have been engaged an armed rebellion against the government since 2003. The rebel groups accused the government of discrimination toward non-Arabs.

Opposition groups had claimed the war in Darfur did not allow a fair vote, and the unification election was rigged to create a "divide-and-rule" multi-state system favoring the central government.

President Omar al-Bashir, however, assured that the situation in Darfur was stable enough to conduct the referendum.

ME