New disputes looming over Western Sahara referendum
Morocco, Politics, 1/20/1999

Moroccan sources described figures adopted by the UN mission in the Western Sahara concerning numbers of those who have the right to take part in the referendum as "mere estimates which do not give a full idea about the real number of persons who are ascended from Sahara origins, who have the right to take part in the referendum," a matter which reflects a dispute in the viewpoints between Rabat and the UN mission.

The sources linked determining the number of voters to resuming the operations of determining the identity of members of three tribal groups, which the Polisario front refuses to recognize as belonging to the Sahara.

It asked: "How does the UN mission speak about the huge numbers of those people to take part in the process of determining the identity before ending the process of registering them?"

A Moroccan official told the London-based al-Hayat daily that Morocco has shown reservations over publishing lists of names of those who have the right to vote before ending the process of registration.

AFP quoted a source regarding the Western Sahara file, who asked not to be identified, as saying that the UN mission decided the status of the 85,000 Sahara voters out of 147,000 covered by the identity-determining operations.

AFP added that 40% of them live in Tindouf, the center of the Polisario in western Algeria, 10% in Mauritania and 50 % in Morocco.

The agency quoted the same source as saying that the UN mission currently estimates number of voters qualified to take part in the referendum in the three disputed tribes as ranging between 3,000 and 4,000.

This figure, however, is much less than the figure submitted by Rabat on the number of voters in these tribes, which estimated 65,000 persons.

Previous Stories:
  Arab League supports Morocco's territorial integrity   (1/8/1999)
  Sahara issue in decisive turning point says Moroccan minister   (1/4/1999)
  Security Council extends term of UN mission in Sahara   (12/18/1998)

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