Since then, close to 330,000 Sudanese have returned home from exile. This represents around 75% of the 428,000 who were registered as refugees in neighboring countries at the beginning of 2005. An estimated 2.5 million IDPs returned home during the same period.
National elections finally took place in April 2010 amidst reports of party boycotts in the run up to the polls as well as mass irregularities during the voting period. These elections are a critical milestone as the country edges closer to the referendum that is slated for January 2011 when the people of South Sudan will choose between independence or continued inclusion in a unitary Sudanese state.
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