5980: CBC News FWD: Aristide expected to win Haiti's presidency (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com

Aristide expected to win Haiti's presidency 
WebPosted Sun Nov 26 15:33:58 2000 


PORT-AU-PRINCE - People in Haiti are voting in presidential elections marred 
by opposition boycotts, low voter turnout and a rash of bombings. 

Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who stepped down in 1996 
because the country's constitution does not allow consecutive terms in 
office, is expected to return to power. 

The main opposition parties are boycotting the vote. They claim the elections 
have been rigged to favour Aristide's candidates. 

Aristide is running against six unknowns who, fearful of attacks, have not 
campaigned. 

A bomb blast at a polling station in the capital, Port-au-Prince, Sunday 
morning wounded one person. Last week, nine pipe bombs exploded in the city, 
killing two children 

Aristide has blamed the bombings on opponents trying to "block the 
elections." Opposition leaders have claimed the government of President Rene 
Preval, Aristide's hand-picked successor, orchestrated the violence to dampen 
voter turnout. 

Aristide is promising to create half a million jobs in the poorest country in 
the Western hemisphere. 

He became president when he won 1990 elections in a landslide to become 
Haiti's first freely elected leader in nearly 200 years of military and 
civilian dictatorship in the Caribbean country. 

The army ousted Aristide in 1991 and he was restored three years later by 
U.S. troops deployed to end military killings of civilians and stem a flood 
of Haitians heading to Florida.