South Sudan leader says postponement of January freedom referendum ‘not an option’

South Sudan: Postponement of vote ‘not an option’

JUBA, Sudan — The chief negotiator for Southern Sudan on the upcoming independence referendum says postponing the vote is not an option.

Only five months remain until the south is supposed to vote, but preparations have fallen far behind due to a deadlock between Sudan’s north and south over the referendum commission.

Pagan Amum, Secretary General of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement, said in an interview Saturday that his party would pursue “other options” instead of accepting a delay.

Amum declined to discuss the possibility of a military response. North and south Sudan fought a decades-long civil war that ended in 2005.