24184: (pub) Chamberlain: Haiti election scheduled for November (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Haiti will hold elections on
Nov. 13 to replace former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted
11 months ago, an election official said on Monday.
     The impoverished Caribbean country has been run by an interim
government since Aristide fled into exile on Feb. 29, 2004, forced out by a
month-long armed revolt and U.S. and French pressure to quit.
     A Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping force of some 6,000 troops and 1,000
civilian police is trying to help stabilize the country, which is still
dogged by political and criminal violence.
     The secretary-general and spokesman for the nine-member elections
commission, Rosemond Pradel, said legislative and presidential elections
would take place on Nov. 13, with a run-off vote, if necessary, on Dec. 18.
     Pradel also announced a local ballot on Oct. 9 to fill at least 135
mayoral seats across the country.
     "We'll do our best to respect these deadlines and we are in time to do
so if everything goes fine," Pradel told Reuters.
     He said voter registration would be launched in early April and would
last two months. Authorities expect to register an estimated 4 million
Haitians, about half Haiti's population.
     Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest who was hailed as a champion
of democracy when he was first elected president in Haiti in 1990, was
increasingly accused by his opponents of despotism and corruption during
his second term in office. He is now living in South Africa.
     Aristide's Lavalas Family party, which still commands support among
many of Haiti's poor masses, has refused to take part in the electoral
preparations, demanding among other things that Aristide allies and
supporters who were jailed after Aristide fled be released first.
     A spokesman for Aristide's party, former parliamentary deputy James
Desrosin, condemned what he called repression of Lavalas supporters and
added, "How can we talk about elections when many senior members of the
Lavalas Family party are being detained without charges?"
     Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has repeatedly rejected such
allegations, saying those Aristide allies who were arrested have been
detained in connection with criminal activities that are being investigated
by the judiciary.