As Staffan de Mistura prepares to relaunch consultations on Western Sahara, the Polisario Front is once again demanding a referendum on self-determination. However, this option was dismissed by the UN over two decades ago, following a voter identification process plagued by disagreements. As Staffan de Mistura prepares to hold new consultations in the coming weeks with all parties involved in the Western Sahara issue, the Polisario Front is once again pushing its long-standing demand for a self-determination referendum—an option that the United Nations has dismissed since 2000, despite the Front's previous role in the process. On June 20, 2000, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented a report to the Security Council detailing the latest developments in the Sahara conflict. He acknowledged that the «identification process» to determine who could participate in the proposed referendum, along with all other activities related to implementing the UN settlement plan—except for maintaining the ceasefire—had been at a standstill since late 1995. Annan directly attributed this deadlock to the Polisario Front, which rejected the inclusion of members of the Tribus del Norte (Northern Tribes) and the Costeras del Sur (Atlantic Coastal Tribes) listed in the 1974 Spanish census. The End of the Identification Commission According to a 1974 document reviewed by Yabiladi, Spain had registered 3,131 people from the Northern Tribes and approximately 30,000 individuals from outside the Rguibat factions, out of a total population of 72,370. Facing an impasse, Annan informed the Security Council that «MINURSO's civilian presence had been reduced to the political office, and its military presence decreased by 20%». Annan's report also noted Morocco's frustration over the exclusion of «some 7,000 applicants who, according to Moroccan authorities, should have been reinstated on the referendum lists». The kingdom maintained that «the right to self-determination included the right of all Sahrawis to decide their fate». Morocco further asserted that it would not participate in a referendum if any eligible Sahrawi was denied the right to vote. Due to Polisario's refusal to allow thousands of Sahrawis to participate, Annan formally ended the mandate of the UN Commission responsible for identifying eligible voters in January 2000. From that point onward, the referendum option effectively disappeared from Security Council resolutions. Between 1993 and December 1999, the Commission had managed to identify only 2,130 eligible voters from a list of 51,220 applicants in Western Sahara, underscoring the deep divisions that ultimately led to the abandonment of the plan.
