Tensions are rising in Sudan as the country prepares for elections in 2010 and a subsequent referendum over whether the people of South Sudan want to break away and become an independent state, say combined reports from All Africa and The Sudan Tribune.

The Sudan Tribune reported from Juba on Monday that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum and the dominant party in the south, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), are on “the verge of political crisis” over an SPLM decision at the weekend to boycott cabinet meetings of the national government.

The SPLM and NCP serve in a unity government established in 2005 in terms of the Comprehensive Peace Accord which ended a long war between north and south.

The agency also said the NCP has reacted angrily to SPLM leader Salva Kiir Mayardit’s weekend suggestion that southerners should vote for independence in the referendum.

The Sudanese ruling National Congress Party (NCP) blasted the plea made by South Sudan president Salva Kiir in which he urged Southerners to vote for independence in the 2011 referendum to avoid being treated like “second class citizens” in a unified Sudan.

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