Majority Sudanese vote for separation | GEO | LIVE GEO NEWS | GEO NEWS | GEO TV

JUBA: Organisers of south Sudan's landmark independence vote were collating the remaining preliminary results, poised to return a landslide for secession after reaching the simple majority required on just 60 percent of the ballot. Figures from state and county referendum officials around the south showed that 2,224,857 votes for separation from the mainly Muslim, Arab north had already been returned by Wednesday evening. That comfortably exceeded the simple majority of 1.89 million votes needed on the 96-percent turnout of the 3,932,588 registered voters. In some areas, the vote for partitioning Africa's and the Arab world's largest nation was almost unanimous in a region still ravaged by a devastating 1983-2005 civil war. In Lakes state, centred on Rumbek town which served as rebel headquarters during the war, 298,216 of the 300,444 votes cast were for independence, more than 99.9 percent. Just 227 opted to remain united with the north -- less than a tenth of one percent -- with the balance made up by blank or invalid ballots.