Sudan’s ruling party says southern army kills at least 5 of its supporters as voting ends

Sudan election violence kills at least 5 in south

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Sudan’s ruling party said soldiers from the semi-autonomous south have killed at least five of its supporters in the first report of deadly violence during historic elections that came to an end Thursday.

Sudan’s first multiparty presidential, parliamentary and local elections in 24 years, which began Sunday, were marred by allegations of fraud and boycotts and raised concerns of new unrest.

The elections were a key requirement of a 2005 peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between the predominantly Arab and Muslim north and rebels in the Christian-animist south. The fighting left 2 million people dead and many more displaced.

The voting was intended to produce a democratically elected government for the impoverished country and prepare the ground for a referendum next year on independence for southern Sudan.

A statement from the ruling National Congress Party said southern soldiers killed five of its supporters Wednesday in the southern province of Western Bahr el-Ghazal. Several other supporters were arrested, it said.

Fathi Sheila, an NCP spokesman, said nine were killed. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

The NCP had previously accused the governing party in the south, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, of harassing its members.

Sheila played down the violence and said an investigation was under way to determine whether a tribal dispute might have played a role.

“This is an isolated incident that followed an argument at a polling station,” Sheila said. “There was no other violence anywhere else in Sudan.”

An official for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement said he was aware of the deaths of two people and said southern soldiers shot them because they were campaigning on behalf of a rival to the southern candidate for a provincial governorship.

Sudan’s elections have been most tense at the local level, in the contests for local parliaments and governorships. That’s in part because the presidential race is widely expected to deliver Omar al-Bashir another five years in office after his most credible challengers pulled out.

Al-Bashir, in power for 20 years, has been charged with war crimes by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands for alleged atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region, where a conflict between government and rebel forces broke out in 2003. An estimated 300,000 people died of violence, disease and displacement.

International observers, local monitors and opposition politicians said the elections have been flawed from the start and accused al-Bashir’s ruling party of controlling the process.

Election officials extended voting by two days in response to complaints of irregularities. The National Election Commission said it is considering repeating voting in a small number of national and state constituencies where ballots and voter registration were found to be flawed.

Voting ended late Thursday and counting was due to begin Friday.

Sheila, of the ruling NCP, said preliminary figures gathered by his party and the election commission show nationwide turnout was 60 percent.

Al-Bashir adviser Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani said the NCP was ready to form a national coalition government if it wins the parliamentary vote, according to the independent newspaper Akhir Lahaza.

“This call will be directed to all political parties, even those who did not take part in the elections. This stems from the conviction of the National Congress Party that this is a decisive moment in the history of the Sudan,” the paper quoted Atabani as saying Thursday.

Associated Press Writer Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed to this report.