Identification of referendum voters resumes Monday

The identification of persons from the Moroccan southern provinces entitled to vote in the U.N. referendum slated for July 2000 resumes this Monday in several Moroccan cities.

A statement of the Moroccan interior ministry invites persons who are already registered and who wish to be identified as potential voters to go to one of the identification centers opened by the UN in 10 Moroccan cities: Laayoune, Boujdour, Dakhla, Tan-Tan, Guelmim, Assa, Tata, Zagoura, Taroudant and Rabat.

People declared eligible to take part in the referendum will vote whether they want the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords, would remain Moroccan territory or stand up on its own as claimed by the Algerian-backed Polisario secessionists.