Southern Sudan referendum landslide for independence

Souther Sudan has voted in a landslide for independence: 98.8% in favour of independence, 1.2% against.  The only areas where independence received less than 98% support were the polling stations in the North, and even there, independence received a 57% majority.    http://www.southernsudan2011.com/

This is not the first time that an independence referendum resulted in a nearly-unanimous vote for independence.  The 1993 Eritrean referendum attained similar results.   In that case, only Eritrean citizens could vote and the government had the right to exclude fighters on the other side of the civil war from voting.