26686 (news) Chamberlain: Troubled Haiti delays election again (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Haiti, struggling to
organize elections amid political violence and general disorder, on Friday
delayed the vote until early next year and gave up trying to inaugurate a
new government by a constitutional deadline of Feb. 7.
     The unstable Caribbean country's electoral council said it had decided
to hold the first round of presidential and legislative elections on Jan.
8, and a run-off on Feb. 15, ignoring an earlier call by the interim
government for the first round of the ballot to take place on Dec. 27.
     Originally scheduled for mid-November, the elections taking place
under U.N. supervision have been delayed repeatedly because of street
violence, poor management by electoral authorities and logistical problems.
     "This schedule is a real final one and has been decided after
considering all contingencies," electoral council official Jerson Richeme
told Reuters.
     "We firmly believe we can meet that timetable," he said.
     A ballot to elect local government officials is now set for March 5,
2006.
     Political parties urged the interim authorities to abandon the Dec. 27
date because they said they feared a low voter turnout over the holiday
period.
     Richeme said the delay would give the council sufficient time to
distribute 3.4 million identity cards that are mandatory for voters, and
time to make sure sufficient ballot papers are printed in the neighboring
Dominican Republic.
     It will also give the council time to recruit and train election
workers, he said.
     Thirty-five candidates are running for president, a number indicative
of the fractures dividing the country of 8.5 million people, most of whom
get by on less than $2 a day.
     The elections will be the first in the poorest country of the Americas
since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled into exile in February
2004 after a month-long armed revolt and under U.S. and French pressure to
quit.
     Once regarded as a champion of Haiti's fragile democracy, Aristide
faced rising accusations of despotism and corruption. Haiti, where only one
elected leader has ever served out a full term, has been run by an interim
government appointed by a special council since Aristide was ousted.
     More than 7,000 Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeepers and international
police have been deployed to Haiti but their presence has failed to stop
clashes between gangs supporting or opposing Aristide, or a wave of
kidnappings and criminal violence that has afflicted the capital.
     The authorities and the United Nations had previously insisted they
would meet a Feb. 7, 2006, constitutional deadline for the inauguration of
a new government.
     But international observers and many local commentators argued that
credible and well-organized elections were more important than the
deadline.