The Referendum
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As is usually the case with referendums of
this kind, in which a country's sovereignty is in question, there is a
discrepancy on the eligibility to vote. The ID commission of MINURSO, the
UN mission for the referendum of the Occidental Sahara (by its Spanish
acronym), was in charge of coming up with provisional lists for the
referendum. According to the Moroccan government, the first lists communicated
to the Moroccan authorities comprised 50,093 voters living in Morocco,
but were then changed to 46,255. On the other hand, the numbers in the
Tindouf camps were raised from 29,567 to 33,786. In Mauritania, the numbers
also increased: from 2,111 to 4,210. This only shows that the Identificaton
Commission did not comply with the numbers that it had communicated to
the Moroccan authorities. Yet, despite all of this, Morocco is glad that
the identification process will be fully under Minurso's control, such
that the Polisario front will no longer be able to interfere.
Finally, in Houston, James Baker quite hastily proposed a list of 80,000 voters. However, that was just to give a lump sum, for diplomatic purposes. He went on to say that this number is by no means a maximum. It is actually quite the opposite: a minimum number, whereby Sahrawis should individually present themselves to vote. Morocco thinks that this number will increase to its predicted 250,000 voters.
On this issue, Morocco persists in its belief that every Sahrawi, no matter
what his current residency is, and no matter when he left the Sahara, should
be eligible to vote. This is especially true because Morocco is taking
into consideration those Sahrawis who had left the territory as a consequence
to Spanish colonization. (For more information on the Sahrawi exodus, please
click here.)
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