Sudanese official says January referendum could be delayed

[News_Editor]

Sudanese official says January referendum could be delayed

2010-10-15 01:05:23 GMT+7 (ICT)

KHARTOUM, SUDAN (BNO NEWS) -- A senior Sudanese official on Thursday said that the January referendum on southern Sudan could be delayed.

"We have reached agreement that it is not possible to hold the vote in Abyei on 9 January. The vote will run into a number of problems if it goes ahead on that date," said Al-Dirdiri Mohammed Ahmed, of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

The announcement has caused controversy and criticism from southern Sudanese politicians and members of the civil society. Ahmed said that it was not a unanimous decision and refers only to the Abyei referendum and not to the one on southern independence.

The Sudanese government planned to hold two referendums next January 9. In one all inhabitants of southern Sudan will vote on whether to secede from the rest of the country. The other one will take place in the central area of Abyei, where residents will vote on whether to be part of the north or the south.

Ahmed is responsible for the Abyei referendum and announced the decision one day after talks related to Abyei broke down in Addis Adaba, Ethiopia. Another senior member of NCP said that the decision was taken due to the difficulties faced during such negotiations between NCP and the Sudan's People Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Despite the delay, south Sudan president Salva Kir assured that the country would not return to civil war. Kir said that the inhabitants of both north and south have suffered too much and reiterated that they are working towards a free, fair and transparent referendum.

"We have suffered a lot and we don’t want to see people suffering again. We want peace and no return to war. No drop of blood should be shed again. We do not want Abyei to become a potential trigger for a conflict again between the south and the north," Kir said.

The planned referendum is the last phase of the implementation of the CPA, signed in 2005 after the end of the armed conflict that lasted two decades between the northern Government and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

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