Last week, GoSS announced a plan to organize a mass return of its citizens in the north to the south in order for them to vote in the referendum. Under the slogan “Come Home to Choose”, the plan has an estimated budget of 25 million US dollars.
Head of Sudan’s National Assembly, Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Tahir, said the plan is not in compliance with the referendum law, Sudan Tribune website reported.
Mr. Al-Tahir said that there is no clause or article in the referendum law indicating the move or transfer of southerners residing in Khartoum to the south so they can vote in the referendum.
Al-Tahir went on to say that any attempt by the SPLM to move southerners back is considered “an obstruction to the freedom of southerners to exercise their right safeguarded by the referendum law to vote wherever they are in all states of Sudan.”
The referendum law was passed by the parliament in December 29, 2009 manadtes south Sudanese living outside the south and born before January 1, 1956, must vote in the south.
But south Sudanese living outside the south and born after January 1, 1956 would be able to vote in their place of residence, whether in the north or abroad.