Darfur votes to keep current multi-state system

Pulse Staff 12:03 - 23 April 2016

Observers watch as officials count ballots after a referendum vote in El Fasher in North Darfur April 14, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

The state referendum commission said 97 percent of voters chose to keep the multi-state administrative system and that 3.08 million people of a total 3.21 million eligible voters turned out.

The people of Sudans Darfur have voted not to reunite the multiple states of its conflict-torn western region into one entity, the option favoured by the central Khartoum government, the Darfur referendum commission said on Saturday.

The vote was boycotted by major rebel and opposition groups who believe the Sudanese government's splitting of Darfur into three states in 1994, and later into a further five states, led to heavier Khartoum control and helped trigger fighting in 2003.