国际英语新闻：Voter registration for south Sudan referendum begins

KHARTOUM, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Voter registration process for south Sudan referendum, slated for Jan. 9, 2011, started in all states of Sudan on Monday.

Around five million southern Sudanese citizens are expected to register their names in the voters' lists during Nov. 15 and Dec. 1, according to the timetables set by the South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC).

The SSRC established 2,794 voter registration centers in different parts of the country, including 2,629 in south Sudan and 156 in the north.

According to South Sudan Referendum Act, the southern Sudanese citizens residing in north Sudan, who are about two millions, have the right to vote in the referendum.

South Sudan Referendum Act stipulates that the voter must be at least 18 years old at the time of registration and should be born to parents both or one of them belonging to one of the indigenous communities that settled in southern Sudan on or before Jan. 1, 1956, or whose ancestry is traceable to one of the ethnic communities in southern Sudan, and permanent resident without interruption.

In the Sudanese capital Khartoum, the registration centers opened their doors early on Monday but the rush for registration is still weak in some centers, while in other centers no voter turned out to register.