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The polls close on day-one of a peaceful referendum poll in southern Sudan. But clashes are reported in the oil-rich Abyei region. And the results of the poll are expected to split Sudan.
The first day of polling has ended without major incident in southern Sudan on Sunday, after thousands of southerners turned out for a referendum expected to split Sudan.
Voting was extended by half an hour at the main polling station, in Juba, the southern capital - to compensate for time lost when southern Sudan president Juba voted on Sunday morning.
Referendum commission officials said everything went smoothly.
[Chan Madut, Commission's Vice Chairman]:
"What we have seen today in Juba and I understand is the same thing all over southern Sudan is something that we have never seen."
Responding to news that armed Arab nomads had clashed with local tribes people in Sudan's disputed Abyei region for the third day, leaving an unknown number dead, Madut said he was confident the authorities could handle the matter.
The referendum date was set out in the terms of the 2005 peace deal that ended the last bloody struggle between the north and the south.
Most people in the south follow Christianity and traditional belief.
