26262: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Elections (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By ALFRED DE MONTESQUIOU

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept 15 (AP) -- Eighteen candidates have registered to
run for president, and more last-minute hopefuls were expected to come
forward Thursday -- the deadline to participate in the Nov. 20 elections.
   The election will be the country's first since President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was forced from power following a violent uprising in February
2004. It was also the last day to register to vote, but the deadline has
been extended several times amid violence that has paralyzed the country.
   Most of the registered candidates so far are officials from past
regimes. The Provisional Electoral Council has barred the candidacy of the
Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a prominent figure in Aristide's Lavalas Family
party, because he is in prison and can't register in person.
   Those who have registered to run for president include former President
Leslie Manigat, who was ousted by the army in 1988 after five months in
power; Evans Paul, a former mayor of Port-au-Prince who was arrested and
tortured several times under former dictatorships; and former Sen. Paul
Denis, who headed a committee investigating corruption in Aristide's
government.
   The list also featured Guy Philippe, a former soldier who helped lead
the rebellion that toppled Aristide; Hubert Deronceray, a minister in the
Jean-Claude Duvalier dictatorship who has run for the presidency four
times; and Marc Bazin, who served as prime minister after Aristide was
ousted the first time, in 1991.
   Radio newscasts said former President Rene Preval and Dumarsais Simeus,
a wealthy U.S. businessman who was born in Haiti, were expected to register
before the end of the day.
   The deadline has been postponed several times, amid the politically
related violence that has claimed more than 1,000 lives since Aristide was
forced into exile.
   Some 2.2 million people, about half of those eligible, have registered
to vote. A Jan. 3 runoff will follow if no candidate gets more than 50
percent of the vote.