Spanish census in Sahara was incomplete, the census author says

Emilio Cuevas, a Spanish official who was in charge of the 1974 Spanish census in the Sahara, said "the census was incomplete."

Cuevas told French "Le Figaro" daily that the census, which serves as a reference in the referendum that the United Nations plans to hold in the Sahara, was not completed due to time constraints and that he never considered the census as complete.

He added that most of the people who were not covered by the census were based in Morocco at the time.

The French daily wrote that the self-criticism of Cuevas confirms claims from Morocco which denounce the methods used to count would-be voters in the projected referendum in the Sahara.

Moroccan Interior Minister Driss Basri renewed last week Morocco's attachment to the rights of all Sahara-born population to be identified and to participate in the referendum.

The vote, proposed by Morocco in the 1980's, is trapped in obstacles sown by the Polisario, which seeks to limit the voter lists to individuals covered by the census.

The consultation, which was repeatedly postponed, is set to take place next December to determine whether the Sahara -- a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under tripartite accords concluded with Spain and Mauritania -- sets up on its own, as claimed by the Polisario, or incorporates into Morocco.