20100416
africanews

Nine people were killed, including a member of President Omar al-Beshir's National Congress Party, as violence broke out on Thursday that was unrelated to nationwide elections, according to the southern Sudan army. The country held its first national election in 24 years.

Lam Akol, a candidate for the leadership of south Sudan, had said on Tuesday that two voters had been killed after the southern army opened fire at a polling station at Riak in the southern Unity State, according to Capital FM based in Kenya.

But the southern army said the killings actually happened in the remote village of Temsah, according to Kuol Deim Kuol, spokesman for the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

The dead, who also included seven civilians and a soldier, were slain as a result of a dispute about "adultery" that had "nothing to do with politics or elections," he added.

"A member of the NCP has committed adultery with the wife of a soldier of SPLM in the home of the soldier" who killed both of them, Kuol said.

Coming on the last day of landmark presidential, legislative and local elections, the incident led to clashes in which six NCP members were killed, before the soldier who had been cheated on committed suicide, he added.