Solon Islands police commissioner, Matthew Varley [Source: Radio NZ]

A Solomon Islands man has been charged with murder over a dispute related to last week’s general election, a blow to an otherwise peaceful poll.

The incident happened on Bellona Island, the day before the vote on April 2, when two men got into a drunken fight over which candidate to support.

Doctors have said it turned deadly when one of the men was decapitated.

The country’s police commissioner, Matthew Varley, said one man appeared in court last Thursday and had been remanded in custody on murder charges.

Several other arrests had been made over violence related to the election, which included minor assaults and threats.