South Sudan election candidate complains of arrests

By Skye Wheeler

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - South Sudan's government has arrested dozens of supporters of a leading independent contesting the governorship of the region's main oil state, the candidate said on Tuesday.

Angelina Teny, the wife of South Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar and who is running independently in Unity state, said April's vote would not be fair.

South Sudan's democratic credentials will be scrutinised during the elections as eight months later it will vote on independence and many believe the region will secede from the rest of the country.

Sudan's opposition complain of harassment in the Islamist north but candidates in the first multi-party vote in 24 years are increasingly speaking of intimidation in the south, where the semi-autonomous government is dominated by the ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

Teny told Reuters some of her supporters were still jailed.

"There are a number of them in prison in different locations," said Teny, a former SPLM member who disagreed with the party's method and choice of candidate for the post. "There is no freedom. You couldn't possibly have free and fair elections under such circumstances."

The SPLM signed peace deal with Khartoum in 2005 ending more than 20 years of war over political, ethnic and religious differences, fuelled by the discovery of oil reserves.

Teny said that four of her campaign agents were still in jail in the Unity state capital Bentiu.