Sudan's southern government pulls out of census

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's semi-autonomous south withdrew on Saturday from a census that will help decide how wealth and power are shared, throwing into doubt months of preparations for the highly politicised count.

The census, due to be held from April 15 to 30, was agreed under the 2005 north-south peace deal which ended Africa's longest civil war. It will set constituencies for the first democratic elections in 23 years.

The head of the Central Bureau of Statistics in Khartoum said he was disappointed with the south's decision and that politicians were interfering in the process.

The Population Census Council within the presidency could decide to go ahead with the census in the rest of the country -- although that would violate the spirit of the accord which envisaged a nationwide count.

The semi-autonomous south wants southerners living in the north to return to the south before the census to give a better indication of the population and how wealth and power ought to be shared and delayed its participation in the count.

The north-south border crosses oilfields producing some 500,000 barrels per day of crude.

"It was postponed," South Sudanese Information Minister Gabriel Changson Chang told Reuters from Juba. "There is a sizeable number of southern Sudanese in northern Sudan and if they are not transported to the south before the census it will ... affect the wealth sharing."

Questions on ethnicity and religion were not included in the census questionnaire, contrary to the southern government's wishes, and the north-south border has still not been demarcated, the minister added.