27487: (news) Chamberlain: With mules and computers, Haiti bids for democracy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 5 (Reuters) - With hired mules packing
ballots over mountainous terrain, voters walking miles to polls and
computers ready to tally the totals, Haiti's election promises to be a
tenuous marriage of primitive and high-tech.
     An impoverished Caribbean nation of 8.5 million where most people live
on less than $2 a day, Haiti faces daunting challenges in its latest
attempt at a democratic vote, its first since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was
overthrown two years ago.
     With a budget of about $75 million provided by the United States and
other nations, elections officials have stumbled in some attempts to add
powerful modern technology to Tuesday's election, which has been plagued by
problems registering millions of voters and hiring workers for polling
stations.
     A plan to transmit computerized voting results by satellite across the
largely rural nation broke down. A request to Washington for U.S.
helicopters to collect ballots from remote areas was rejected.
     Officials were forced to hire a herd of mules to tote the ballots over
the mountains.
     "We would have used some mules anyway but we're using a few more
because we don't have the helicopters," said David Wimhurst, a spokesman
for the United Nations mission in Haiti.
     Donor nations have pledged about $1.3 billion since Aristide's
departure to help Haiti, where political turmoil, illiteracy, joblessness
and environmental catastrophe leave the poor masses destitute and
malnourished. About half the money has been disbursed.
     LOGISTIC PROBLEMS
     The presidential and legislative elections, originally scheduled for
last November, have been put off several times due to logistic problems
registering 3.5 million voters and distributing identity cards -- some
600,000 of them going to people who have never before had any form of
identification.
     Critics complain that a decision to open only 800 large voting centers
instead of small community polling stations will force some people to walk
miles to cast their ballots. Officials in the interim government appointed
after Aristide's ouster have told voters to just do it -- rise early and
walk.
     With television a luxury and radio the dominant medium, dozens of
people make their way each day to the front of the National Palace, where
officials mounted posters bearing the names and pictures of the 30-plus
presidential candidates on the metal fence surrounding the stately
whitewashed mansion.
     Some voters take copious notes.
     "I thought it was important to see their faces and know the parties
they represent," said Moreth Benjamin, who was jotting down information.
     In a nation where nearly 50 percent of adults do not read, ballots
bear photos of the 1,400 candidates for office and symbols for their party
affiliations. Voters will mark an X in a circle by the candidate of their
choice.
     Critics say the large voting centers could disintegrate into chaos,
with thousands of voters who can't read trying to find the right place to
vote and match their names to registration lists.
     Vote tallies from the centers will be put in sealed containers and
transferred to a large warehouse at Sonapi, near Port-au-Prince's airport,
where data operators sitting at more than 160 computers will enter results
for tabulation.
     Elections officials said the result should be known within three days.





 REUTERS