KHARTOUM: South Sudan’s referendum on independence, which is scheduled for January, 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 take place 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."
