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KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's ruling party accused southern authorities of election fraud on Monday after figures showed five southern states had managed to sign up more than 100 percent of their estimated electorate in a voter count.

South Sudanese officials dismissed the accusations saying official estimates of the electorate were inaccurate because they were based on a faulty census.

Political tensions are already high in the oil-producing country ahead of national elections, due in April, and a contentious referendum on southern independence in January 2011.

South Sudan secured its own semi-autonomous government in a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.

Some analysts had warned Sudan would struggle to organise the ballots across its vast territory, and many voters in remote areas of the underdeveloped south might be left out.

Figures seen by Reuters showed elections staff in south Sudan's Unity state collected the names of 522,196 voters during a six-week registration exercise, almost twice estimates of the state's entire electorate, according to an earlier census.

Five other states -- Warap, Lakes, Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal in south Sudan, and Southern Kordofan in north Sudan -- also signed up between 107 and 140 per cent of their estimated electorates, according to the document compiled by the country's National Elections Commission.

Figures published by the Rift Valley Institute showed southern regions only managed to register between 1 and 23 per cent of their total populations in previous elections.