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In Khartoum, the first hour of voting registered low turnout at polling centers, Badr-Eddin Hiraiz, director of the al-Gerif Shareg polling center in eastern Khartoum, told Xinhua.
By 9:00 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), only one southern Sudanese voted at the center, the biggest in the capital, with was expected to receive 1,088 registered voters, he said.
"There are many reasons behind this weak turnout," he said, " including the wave of cold which hit the capital today, and the fact that most of the southerners work at farms, factories and do other freelance works. It is difficult for them to abandon their work to come to the polling centers."
Hiraiz expected the turnout to increase by midday.
Some northern Sudanese people still bear a ray of hope for unity.
"Why separation? We (the north and the south) are one nation. The northerners and the southerners can live together peacefully," 30-year-old Sayed Radi, a mobile shop owner in Khartoum said before the referendum. "The separation of the south will make our country weaker, as we will lose a lot of oil."
As the referendum went smoothly in most parts of the country, clashes were going on in the disputed border region of the oil- rich Abyei.