26610: Craig (news) Haitian Elections Postponed a Third Time (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <sak-pase@bimini.ws>


Haitian Elections Postponed a Third Time
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 17, 2005
Filed at 4:09 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Haiti's first elections since the ouster of 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide have been postponed for the third time this 
year, the interim prime minister said Thursday.

The first round of the legislative and presidential vote will be Dec. 27 
followed by a runoff Jan. 31, interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said in an 
interview with The Associated Press.

The presidential elections were originally scheduled for Nov. 13, then 
postponed until Nov. 20. The government said they would have to be delayed 
again, and Latortue had given timeframe of Dec. 11-18.

The new date is ''firm and final,'' he said.

''We took our time to fix a date, but now we are fully confident we will 
achieve good elections,'' Latortue said. ''All the problems have been 
anticipated, and we have a solution for each of them.''

Haiti's constitution requires the new government to take control Feb. 7, but 
the country has struggled to organize the election because of a lack of 
equipment and trained poll workers, crumbling infrastructure, and violence that 
has made it difficult to register voters.

Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council, which is charged with organizing the 
election, was expected to announce the new dates later Thursday. Rosemond 
Pradel, the council's general secretary, said the Dec. 27 date had not yet been 
confirmed, although it was ''the most likely'' day for the vote.

Haitian voters will choose from among about 35 candidates for president and 
hundreds of candidates for 129 legislative seats.

While the interim government, aided by international organizations, works to 
print and distribute ballots and enlist poll workers, the country is still 
plagued by violence.

In the slum of Cite Soleil, U.N. troops regained control of a neighborhood 
Thursday after a night of clashes with armed gang members who authorities say 
are supporters of Aristide. He was forced to flee Haiti in February 2004 
following a violent rebellion.

''Both sides exchanged thousands of bullets,'' said Lt. Col. Andre Novaes, the 
U.N. commanding officer in the zone. ''We fought from sunset till dawn.''

Boulders and scrap still littered the streets where Novaes said his men had 
driven gangs from a series of barricades. The gangs also destroyed a house the 
peacekeepers had used as an observation point until they were forced to flee 
under heavy fire Wednesday night.

U.N. troops have traded gunfire with the gang members in the Pele neighborhood 
of Cite Soleil for more than a week.

The U.N. says its forces have killed five alleged gang members and arrested 
nearly 100 people.

Gang leaders, who say they are a self-protection force for slum dwellers 
against police and soldiers, say 15 people have been killed -- including 
unarmed civilians caught in crossfire.

Cite Soleil, home to about 200,000 people, is one of the most lawless and 
violent areas of Haiti. International authorities have pressed the U.N. forces 
to crack down on the gangs before the elections.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-Elections.html