Voting in southern Sudan ended Saturday after a week-long poll on the region's landmark independence referendum. Southern Sudanese voters are expected to have overwhelmingly voted to break away from the north and create the world's newest country. Preliminary results will be announced on January 31 and final results are expected by February 6 at the earliest. Election officials have confirmed that voter turnout far exceeded the 60 percent mark needed to make the poll valid. Voting was largely peaceful, although there have been deadly tribal clashes along the north-south border in the oil-rich Abyei region.The independence poll is part of the 2005 peace deal that ended 21 years of war between Sudan's Muslim-majority north and the mainly Christian and animist south. Nearly 4 million people registered to vote in the referendum.