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Call to delay south Sudan independence vote
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Aug 8, 2010 - 7:27:56 AM

(AFP) – 5 hours ago

KHARTOUM — South Sudan's referendum on independence, which is scheduled for January 9, should be delayed to allow more time to prepare for it, a member of the referendum commission warned on Sunday.

"The time that is remaining is not enough to hold a referendum," Tarek Osman al-Taher told AFP.

"We at the commission will begin the necessary measures to try to hold the referendum on time but we must warn the partners (that there is not enough time)," he said.

South Sudan is expected in January to vote on whether it will choose independence or remain part of a united Sudan.

The referendum was a key provision of the 2005 peace deal between north and south Sudan that ended a decades-long civil war.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has repeatedly promised since being returned to power in April elections that the referendum on southern independence will go ahead in January as scheduled.

But Taher says there have already been several delays and the task of holding a referendum in five months time will be challenging.

"We have faced real difficulties. The commission itself was due to be set up in 2008 but was formed just over a month ago," he said.

"Based on such difficulties, some believe that the referendum should be delayed."

His comments were condemned by the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement -- now partners in government -- as "irresponsible."

"The comments are condemned, they are irresponsible and unprofessional," SPLM leader Atem Garang said.

"We consider these statements a way by (Bashir's) National Congress Party to test the waters because they want to know how the southerners would react (to a delay)," he told AFP.

But an NCP official said the commission was merely expressing procedural difficulties, while any decision on a delay would be made by the NCP and SPLM.

"These are technical remarks by the commission but a delay to the referendum can only be decided by the ruling partners," Rabie Abdel Ati told AFP.

There are still several outstanding issues ahead of the January referendum, including demarcation of north-south borders.

As matters stand, the NCP and the SPLM are at loggerheads over five distinct sites along a tentative border.

Last month a report by 24 international humanitarian and human rights organisations warned that Sudan was "alarmingly" unprepared for a vote in January.