Final Sahara referendum voting list to be known mid-January

The total number of people entitled to vote in the Sahara referendum will not be available before the release Jan. 15 of the second part of the provisional list, the UN secretary general's spokesman said in New York Wednesday.

Recanting figures he announced Tuesday, the spokesman said the provisional list published last July 15 totalled 84,000 requests deemed eligible, insisting that the final figures will not be known till the release of the second part of the list in mid-January.

Straightening the record, he stated the identification commission summoned 240,000 people and interviewed so far 200,000 whose status is now determined but who are not automatically eligible to vote in the referendum.

The much-delayed referendum seeks to determine whether the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975, sets up on its own, as claimed by the Polisario, or remains part of Morocco.