27505: (news) Chamberlain: Mules, UN troops deployed in chaotic Haiti election (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Jim Loney

     LA DIGUE, Haiti, Feb 6 (Reuters) - U.N. troops fanned out across Haiti
on Monday, some with mules carrying ballots up mountain tracks, for the
first election since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was toppled as president in a
rebellion two years ago.
     Despite rampant crime, fears of election day violence or fraud and the
protests of some who will have to walk miles to vote, the United Nations
predicted voting would be peaceful.
     "Violence so far has not been used as a political instrument. Let's
hope they will not use violence against the elections," said Gerard Le
Chevallier, the top U.N. election official in Haiti.
     The clear election favorite is Rene Preval, a former president and an
Aristide protege who draws broad support in poor slums but is mistrusted by
Haiti's small business elite and former officers in its disbanded army.
     A Preval victory could allow Aristide to return to Haiti and might irk
Washington, which accused the priest-turned-president of despotism before
he was ousted.
     U.N. trucks ferried ballot papers to voting stations around the
country on Monday and about 180 mules were deployed to reach remote areas.
     In the small town of La Digue, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of the
capital, 4,000 election ballots and boxes containing ballot boxes, crayons,
elastic bands, toilet paper and candles were loaded onto four mules and
sent on a six-hour journey to the remote village of Michel.
     Ten U.N. soldiers joined them on the narrow, rocky path. "They will
protect the ballots," said Uruguayan Army Maj. Arturo Merello.
     The mules, hired at about $23 a day each, bore makeshift wooden
saddles and saddlebags fashioned from old flour sacks into which the
supplies were loaded. Cardboard boxes carrying the ballots were piled on
top.
     U.N. troops will stand guard at some voting centers to prevent a
repeat of an election day massacre in 1987, when thugs killed more than 30
people in one of the bloodiest single episodes of Haiti's long search for a
stable democracy.
     The election on Tuesday is the latest of many efforts to build
democracy in Haiti, in chaos after decades of political violence, crushing
poverty and crime. Almost 2,000 people have been kidnapped for ransom just
in the past year.
     The voting comes exactly 20 years after dictator Jean-Claude "Baby
Doc" Duvalier was ousted.
     Since then, Aristide has dominated Haiti's politics. He was twice
elected president but was unable to finish either term before his foes
toppled him.
     He was finally forced into exile in February 2004 when a rag-tag
rebellion of former allies and old enemies marched on Port-au-Prince.
Accused of corruption and repression, Aristide fled under pressure from the
United States and France.
     About 9,000 U.N peacekeepers were then deployed to Haiti to stave off
more violence and prepare the election.
     Serious logistic problems forced several postponements and, on the eve
of voting, officials warned people in TV ads that some polling stations had
been moved. Many Haitians suspect the unelected interim government has
tried to make voting difficult in the poorest areas to undermine Aristide's
ally.
     "They don't want us to vote. They know we will support Preval so they
try to stop us," said France Emma Michel, a 28-year-old woman in the
sprawling slum of Cite Soleil, which has become a symbol of Haiti's misery
in recent years.
     Election authorities say they were unable to put polling stations
inside Cite Soleil because it was too dangerous.
     Armed gangs loyal to Aristide control the shantytown, use it to hide
their kidnap-for-ransom victims and have held running battles with U.N.
peacekeepers.
     In the countryside, armed groups of former soldiers hold sway. Many
fear radicals on either side could launch new attacks if the election does
not go their way.
     Aristide remains in exile in South Africa and has kept a remarkably
low profile in the run-up to Tuesday's vote.
     Preval was president between 1996 and 2001, the only elected Haitian
leader to ever serve his full term and hand over power peacefully.
     He has a comfortable lead in opinion polls but needs to win at least
50 percent of the votes to avoid a run-off.
     Running at least 20 percentage points behind Preval are wealthy
industrialist Charles Baker, a white Haitian, and former president Leslie
Manigat, who briefly led Haiti in 1988 before being overthrown in a
military coup.
     Officials say it will take three days to count the results.