UN chief calls for identifying all would-be voters meeting identification criteria
Morocco-West Sahara, Politics, 10/27/1998

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for the identification, as voters in the projected self-determination referendum in the Sahara, all applicants meeting at least one of the five identification criteria already agreed upon by Morocco and the Polisario.

Any applicant, whatever their tribal group, meeting one of the identification criteria (for persons entitled to vote in the referendum) has the right to be registered on the voters' list, Annan said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.

Annan had said in a previous report to the Security Council that with the identification of 147,000 applicants wishing to take part in the referendum, the indentification phase was completed, except for the contested tribes H41, H61 and J51/52.

Annan proposed his own arbitration to settle the issue of the contested tribes, as it proved impossible for the two parties (Morocco and the Polisario) to reach agreement on the question.

In a bid to avoid any arbitrary decision that could lead to the exclusion of eligible voters, the U.N. Secretary-General requested that the identification commission start forthwith studying the applications of persons belonging to the concerned tribal groups in order to check their conformity with the five criteria of admissibility to vote.

Under the Houston Accords, brokered by U.N special envoy for the Sahara, former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, the eligible persons are those whose name appear on the revised list of the 1974 census, persons who were living in the territory as members of a Sahrawi tribe at the time the 1974 census was conducted but who were not covered by the census, close relatives of the two first groups (father, mother and children), persons whose father is a Sahrawi born in the territory and members of Sahrawi tribes from the territory and who have lived there for 6 consecutive years or by intermittence for a cumulative period of 12 years before December 1, 1974.

In order to avoid any future contestation, the identification commission members should continue investigating the applications with utmost rigor and impartiality, Annan said, before stressing the need to start studying appeals to avoid any excessive delay in holding the referendum.

For Annan, the holding of the referendum also depends on measures that would have been taken to prepare for the return of refugees. He underlined that the official installation of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) in the territory should come into effect as soon as possible.

The U.N. chief also recommended that the Security Council extend until April 30 1999, the mandate of the MINURSO (acronym in French for the UN mission for the referendum in the Sahara), which expires on October 31.

"It seems to me judicious" that the Council extend the MINURSO mandate until April 1999, as a deadline for the new identification phase, he said.

Annan added that he would submit recommendations next December to the Security Council regarding the full deployment of the MINURSO.

The MINURSO, which supervises a cease-fire in force since September 1991, comprises 203 military observers, 10 staff officers, 248 troopers and 80 civilian police observers.

Previous Stories:
  UN peacekeeping official expected in Morocco   (10/22/1998)
  Morocco warns against Polisario's impediments to Sahara referendum   (10/15/1998)
  Morocco wants free and transparent referendum in Sahara   (10/13/1998)

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