Blue Nile State popular consultations

Click here for the 2004 Protocol for Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile and here for the Annexure on the implementation

The Popular Consultations in Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan States are one of the packages offered by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in 2005 ending the civil war between South and North Sudan.

The consultations are meant to address the distribution of power and wealth between the states and the Government of Sudan, as well as the resolution of other matters, such as land, religious and cultural freedom, educational reform, and local security.

Blue Nile State literacy rate: 65%

The consultations give the people of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan States a chance to analyse the implementation of the CPA for the last five years, and voice their view on whether it was satisfactory as implemented.

USIP report: Why Sudan\'s Popular Consultation Matters

Based alongside the border between Northern and Southern Sudan, these two states have unique features. During the civil war people from these two states, dominated by both Christians and Muslims, were mostly fighting against the Khartoum government. Many of the people consider themselves as belonging to Southern Sudan, but Khartoum claims they belong to the North.

UNMIS: development lacking in Blue Nile / consultations reveal little change in Blue Nile / FAQs on the Popular Consultations

In December 2010 the Parliamentary Commission of the Popular Consultation started work on the process of holding the popular consultations. The Commission is due to complete consulting the largely illiterate population in early February. It will then draft a report on the consultations and submit it to the State Legislative Assembly, Popular Consultation Committee. The preliminary report then will be handed to the Sudanese Central Government for final legislature on whether the CPA was attractive or not. If not, then the people of the two states will negotiate on renewing the peace deal with the Sudanese government as Southern Sudan works on establishing its own new government.   

As of the latest 2008 Sudan National Census, Blue Nile State has a population of about 900,000 people, of which about 65% are illiterate.