Organisers of a landmark South Sudan independence vote have confirmed that the turnout threshold needed for it to be valid has been reached, as Jimmy Carter, former US president, said the region looks set for nationhood.
Drivers honked their horns in the regional capital Juba on Thursday as southerners hailed the turnout achievement in just four days of the week-long polls, saying it showed the importance of freedom to them after five decades of conflict with the north.
"We are already above the threshold yesterday [Wednesday] - some 2.3 million plus - and more today," Chan Reec, referendum commission deputy chairman, said.
"At the end of the fourth day of polling, with 86 per cent of referendum centres reporting, 2,360,922 people are confirmed to have voted in southern Sudan. This exceeds the 60 per cent threshold figure of 2,359,553."
Carter, who has been heading an observer mission, said he expected the vote to meet all of the criteria to be valid.
"There is no doubt about the legitimacy of the election as far as the number of voters is concerned," Carter told reporters.
"I think it will meet international standards both on the conduct of the vote and the freedom of voters," he said, adding he expected the same to be true of the count.
"The likelihood is that the referendum result will be for independence although we won't know until probably the first week of February."
