Rumbek — The Lakes state Advisor for Gender and Human Right Affairs in the government of Ms. Adak Costa Mapuor is concerned that men are discouraging women from voting in south Sudan's referendum on independence has improved throughout the states eight counties.
Some registration centers have reported a low turnout of women in Rumbek and in Lakes states eight counties. According to Mapuor "men are trying to sabotage women's rights, which is not acceptable".
Mapuor said that increase of women reported in the media could prove to be wrong. Large numbers of women voted in April's election and they should play a large role again in the referendum she said.
Mapuor told Sudan Tribune that despite the issues thousands of women have turned out to register to vote in Lakes state.
She called upon southern women living in northern Sudan to support the separation of southern Sudan from the north.
The adviser said "let women of the north support us by making sure that separation had happened in South Sudan, we can live as two peaceful countries."
She also asked northern women to support the south's potential independence so that the north and south could live in peace as two separate countries.
Some two million people died in the last north-south civil war, which began in 1983 and ended with a 2005 peace deal that agreed on the south's right to secede through a referendum in 2011.
