27141: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti sets new election for Feb. 7 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Haiti's electoral authorities
set a new date for an oft-delayed presidential election on Sunday, saying
that the first round of the chaos-bedeviled ballot will take place Feb. 7,
as the United Nations has demanded.
     The announcement came a day after the commander of U.N. forces in the
strife-torn country put a bullet through his brain. There was no immediate
word on why he might have taken his life.
     The election was supposed to take place on Sunday after having been
repeatedly delayed since November. But the council canceled the vote a week
ago without announcing a new date, earning the impoverished Caribbean
country a rebuke from the United Nations and the Organization of American
States.
     "For us this schedule is official and final. We discussed it with the
government, which has no objection," Rosemond Pradel, secretary general of
the Provisional Electoral Council, told Reuters in a telephone interview on
Sunday.
     It will be the first election since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
was chased from office by an armed revolt and civic pressure in February
2004, accused of corruption and increasing despotism.
     Attempts to hold the ballot have been plagued by incompetence,
logistical problems and continuing violence despite the presence of 9,000
Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeepers and police.
     A run-off vote, if none of the 34 candidates registered for the
presidential election win an outright majority, will occur on March 19 and
a vote for local government officials will take place on April 30, Pradel
said.
     The decision on an new election date came a day after Haiti and its
attempts to return to democratic rule were rocked by the death of the U.N.
military commander, Brazilian Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira Da Matta Bacellar,
     Bacellar was found dead in his hotel suite on Saturday, dressed in
shorts and T-shirt, his pistol by his side.
     A U.N. police investigator and a Haitian police officer said it was
pretty clear that Bacellar had taken his own life.
     "According to the elements we've found, I'm 95 percent sure Gen.
Bacellar committed suicide," said the U.N. expert, who spoke on condition
he not be identified.
     "We found his gun, a 9mm pistol, by his side. The gun was loaded and
when we compared the remaining bullets with the hole left in his head and
the spent shell we found there is no doubt."
     An investigator with the Haitian National Police, also speaking on
condition he not be named, said Bacellar had shot himself under the chin
and the bullet went through his head.
     "The way it happened showed us clearly that it was a suicide," the
police officer said, adding that the general's body was discovered by his
security guards.
     U.N. mission chief Juan Gabriel Valdes declined at a news conference
to confirm it was suicide.
     But he did reiterate a U.N. Security Council call, issued on Friday,
for the interim government to ensure the first round of the election was
held by Feb. 7.
     "The schedule officially published by the Haitian authorities will not
be allowed to be changed," Valdes told reporters at a news conference.
     "It will be final and the U.N. mission is ready to accomplish every
task in its competence to make sure the new schedule is met," the U.N.
diplomat said.