Ranjit Bhaskar

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Ranjit Bhaskar
Senior News Editor, Online | Qatar
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By Ranjit Bhaskar in Africa on January 10th, 2011
Many security personnel were seen voting in Juba on Monday after being deployed to protect dignitaries the day before [AFP]

After Sunday's large crowds at polling centres in Juba and other towns of Southern Sudan, things were much quieter on Monday, the second day of voting in the week-long referendum process.

More security personnel could be seen voting after Sunday’s heavy deployment of forces to secure the town for dignitaries visiting to observe the beginning of the historic process.

"As many people could not vote yesterday in Juba centres, there is a proposal to extend the polling by an hour till 6pm," said Abuk Nikanora Manyok, the public outreach director at the South Sudan Referendum Bureau.

She said the decision whether or not to extend polling hours will be taken by the South Sudan Referendum Commission in Khartoum by Monday evening.

"Women are now going from house to house to mobilise those who have not voted to go out and vote," Manyok said.

She said voting is slowly picking up in remote areas as people have to walk long distances to reach polling centr

By Ranjit Bhaskar in Africa on January 9th, 2011

It was very emotional. To witness the birth pangs of a nation.

To watch southern Sudanese come out in their thousands to cast their vote in the referendum for self-determination.

They were in a hurry and impatient.

Something Salva Kiir, their president, rightly sensed when he came to vote. His main appeal to his people was to have patience and spread the voting across the scheduled seven days.
 
It was as if the impatience was about not wanting to miss a referendum like the first one scheduled in Sudan and which never happened.
 
That was in 1953.

By Ranjit Bhaskar in Africa on January 8th, 2011
Photo by Ranjit Bhaskar

Juba, the main town in southern Sudan, was its normal, languid self on Saturday.

It was as if the townspeople were taking a break from the hectic pace of the day before which saw rallies, public meetings and an all-night music concert.

Those who were busy were the organisers of the week-long referendum beginning on Sunday along with journalists and poll observers from all over the world here to witness and record the historic event.

While the observers busied themselves by consulting senior government of Southern Sudan and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement [the ruling party] officials, journalists had a string of press briefings lined up for them.

It began with a joint briefing by Chan Reec Madut, who heads the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau, and Barnaba Marial Benjamin, the minister for information.

As the nascent ministry’s conference room was small, the briefing was held under a mango tree.

"It is good not to have a five-star hot

By Ranjit Bhaskar in Africa on January 4th, 2011
Photo by Ranjit Bhaskar

It was a scramble.

By Ranjit Bhaskar in Africa on December 30th, 2010
Photo by Ranjit Bhaskar
There is not much drama as the Kenya Airways Embraer jet prepares to land in Juba after an hour and a half flight from Nairobi.
 
Considering its status as the latest frontier town for a hoard of NGO employees, get-rich-quick businessmen and journalists, one almost expected something out of the ordinary. Like, for instance, the corkscrew landing manoeuvre adopted by pilots while landing in Baghdad when the city was still a place visited only by the aforementioned folk.
 
Instead, all you get to see is the pleasant site of the White Nile. You notice more trees on the western side of the river after the hardscrabble landscape of eastern Africa through much of the journey.
 
For reasons unknown or primordial, the very sight of plentiful water and greenery comes as a sign of hope.
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