The South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) on Saturday commenced a wide tour of the voting centers in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and some other Sudanese states to get acquainted with the latest preparations for the voting process.

The SSRC Chairman Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil on Saturday announced that the total number of the registered eligible southern Sudanese voters amounted to 3,930,916, among them 3,753,815 in south Sudan, 116,860 in north Sudan and 60,241 in eight overseas countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Australia, the United States, Britain and Canada.

He explained that the voting would begin at local time 8:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) and last till local time 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT), adding that the voting would continue for seven days and ends on Jan. 15.

Around 17,000 local observers together with 1,200 foreign observers will participate in monitoring the south Sudan referendum, which is the most prominent item in the CPA, signed between north and south Sudan in January 2005, which ended a two- decade civil war between the two sides.