Leading southerners run as independents in Sudan

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - Three senior members of south Sudan's main party have broken away in a surprise move and will stand as independent candidates in gubernatorial elections, the candidates and election officials said on Thursday.

Junior oil minister Angelina Teny and presidential adviser Alfred Gorre told Reuters they would run against their own Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) because they disapproved of the party's official candidates.

"Most people do not support the current governor because of his bad governance over the last five years," Gorre said, explaining why he will run against Clement Wani, the incumbent in Central Equatoria State, which includes the southern capital Juba.

Election officials said Aleisio Ojetuk, the SPLM governor of Eastern Equatoria, also would run as an independent after he was passed over by the party leadership.

SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum told Reuters the movement would expel any party members who ran as independents.

"They are risking the unity of the party," he said.

Party distrust

North Sudan's dominant National Congress Party (NCP) said the move showed deep problems within the SPLM leadership.

"This is a clear message to the public that there is no unity in the process of leadership in the party," Agnes Lokudu, the head of the NCP in the south, told Reuters.

"It shows distrust by the members of the party."

The elections, along with a southern referendum on independence in 2011, are key elements of a peace deal ending 22 years of bitter north-south civil war.

Sudan is preparing for a complex set of presidential and legislative elections in April.

Southern Sudan's long insurgency against the north, over differing ideas about ethnicity, religion and politics, killed an estimated 2 million and drive 4 million from their homes.

Many analysts say the south is likely to secede and fear rural insecurity, the lack of SPLM authority outside urban centres and tribal rivalries could destabilise a new state.

The SPLM, the south's main rebel force during the war, dominates 80 percent of the south's semi-autonomous government and controls nine of the oil-producing region's 10 state governorships.