Queuing Through the Night

“I got here at two o’clock in the morning” said one man, clutching his voter registration card at dawn outside the University of Juba. He had been to vote the previous day, but the queues were too long, full of southern Sudanese voters eager to imprint their finger next to a symbol representing secession. When the doors opened on this second day of voting, lines of people waited to make their mark.

The scene at the end of the day, however, was somewhat different. In Southern Sudan’s capital, the staff at the voting centres sat under the shade of mango trees, attending to a trickle of voters. It seemed as if Juba had voted in the first day and a half.

A Historic Day's End

A Historic Day’s End

After an immense day of voting in Juba, filled with people celebrating, the polling stations came to close. It was scheduled for 5pm, but with rules stipulating that all those in the queue should have the opportunity to cast their ballot, many centres were still inking voters’ fingers much later.

Many believed that vast numbers of people did not realise that they could vote throughout the entire week — the 9th of January had become so symbolic in the talk of freedom. Or perhaps people’s enthusiasm meant that the citizens of southern Sudan were so keen to participate on this first day that they would patiently pass their day queuing under the unforgiving Sudanese sun.

In any case, when the ballot boxes were closed with their numbered seals, the translucent plastic urns were full of folded slips bearing the stamp of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission.

For us, it means a long night of editing & filing images, rehydrating & somehow digesting what we have witnessed this nation undertake today. This is history.

South Sudan Votes

Some never believed that this day would come. But today it had arrived, and the citizens of southern Sudan met it en-masse, clutching their laminated voter registration cards. People had queued for hours, lines having formed since before sunrise on this historic day, the 9th January 2011, the day prescribed in the peace agreement of 2005 decreeing southern Sudan’s right to self-determination.

The voting process was laborious, taking up to seven minutes per voter. Protocol was followed; nobody wanted to risk arriving at this moment and giving anyone any cause to question its undertaking.

Voters showed their registration card, checked their name from a list and impressing a finger-print on the form, then receiving their ballot paper. Walking to the cardboard voting booths, a yellow curtain guarded their privacy (although nobody spoke of anything but secession), and then the slip was meticulously folded and cast in the plastic urns. Finally, their finger dipped in purple ink, they left.

In one voting station in Juba, elderly women ululated as they walked away from their cast ballot, the queues never failing to applaud these people whose lives had existed through decades of civil war.

The Final Walk

Many said they had waited their whole lives for this moment, the “final walk to freedom”. South Sudan has been embroiled by two civil wars since independence in 1956, with just over a decade of respite. It ended in 2005 with a peace agreement, which defined January 9th 2011 as the day of self-determination. Even until several weeks ago, many doubted that this day would actually arrive.

At the John Garang mausoleum in Juba, the future-capital’s main polling station, queues had already formed at sunrise, full of people ready to cast their ballot for secession. This was the day they had been waiting for.

Voter Registration Closes

The people of Southern Sudan became a step-closer to realising their independence today, as a trickle of people wandered through the tents and buildings of Juba on the final day of registration to obtain their voting card for the January 9th referendum.

In a month’s time, these people will be bringing their laminated cards to these same locations, choosing between unity with the north, and independence to form the world’s 193rd nation. Judging by popular opinion on the streets of the capital of this semi-autonomous state, their seems to be little chance of remaining with Khartoum.