20101212
reuters

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Lawyers for a Sudanese campaign group launched a legal bid on Sunday to halt Sudan's referendum on southern independence, accusing organisers of mishandling the process, a move which could derail the January 9 vote.

A group calling itself the Society Organisation Network instructed lawyers to take the case to court, accusing the referendum commission of placing SPLM members in senior posts and saying southerners in the north had been prevented from registering for the vote.

"We delivered the papers to the constitutional court today," said lawyer Qurashi al-Tom, who presented the case. "We are demanding a halt to the referendum process because we want to make sure we have a referendum that is free and fair."

He said there were 250 southern plaintiffs with complaints ranging from being refused registration to vote to intimidation, arrest and kidnapping of relatives in the south.

Southern leaders said the case had been stage-managed by the north's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to sabotage the vote, which most analysts expect to result in secession for the oil-producing south.

"It is an act of sabotage for the referendum," Yasir Arman, senior member of the South's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), told Reuters.

"It is an open secret that the National Congress was preparing the ground for such an action -- this will not resolve issues."

Reporters were invited to attend a news conference given by the society by a senior NCP official. The NCP official denied any link to the group, which says it represents a network of southern civil society groups with thousands of members.