27547: (news) Chamberlain: Haitians defy fears, chaos in vote for democracy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Jim Loney and Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Haitians put aside fears of
violence and voted by candlelight into the night on Tuesday in the first
presidential election since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was toppled two years
ago.
     Three people died, including a policeman lynched by a mob, and voting
began more than three hours late in many areas, infuriating poor supporters
of former President Rene Preval, a one-time Aristide ally favored to win.
     But with U.N. peacekeepers keeping watch, polling stations stayed open
several hours after the official 4 p.m. (2100 GMT) closing time so everyone
still in line could vote.
     Where there was no electricity, Haitians cast their ballots under
candlelight in the poorest country in the Americas -- once the richest
jewel in France's colonial crown.
     Official results may not be known for days and the rocky start marred
an election that could prove troublesome for U.S. policy in the country of
8.5 million people.
     Critics accused Aristide of despotism and Washington pressed him to
leave for exile during a bloody rebellion that drove him from power in 2004
only to find his one-time ally Preval now expected by many to retake the
presidency.
     The U.S. government said Haiti's election appeared "pretty successful"
and pledged to work with whoever is elected.
     "Far from looking backward we're going to be looking forward," Tom
Shannon, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere
affairs, told Reuters.
     Preval, who held a comfortable lead in opinion polls, needs more than
50 percent of the votes to avoid a run-off. His main rivals are businessman
Charles Baker and Leslie Manigat, who was president for a few months in
1988 before being deposed in a military coup. There were 33 presidential
candidates. Voters were also electing senators and parliamentarians.
     Some Preval supporters alleged the government planned the delays to
limit the vote in poor areas and hurt his chances.
     "It's a fraud. If we can't vote, Preval won't be elected," said Ysail
Joseph, a 75-year-old man who got up at 4 a.m. to walk from the Cite Soleil
slum to his polling station but was still there waiting to vote several
hours later.
     Voting was easier in the afternoon, however, and observers said
violence was less than many had feared.
     "It is almost a miracle, fortunately, that this was a day, apart from
some incidents, almost without violence. That is extremely important for a
country like Haiti," said Johan Van Hecke, the head of a European Union
observer mission.
     "Finally the elections took place and they are good elections of which
all Haitians can be proud," said Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of
the Organization of American States.
     The United Nations said a police officer killed a citizen near a
voting station in the northern town of Gros-Morne, and was then lynched by
people who saw the incident. An old man died in a crush of voters in the
capital.
     Thousands of people in Cite Soleil rose before dawn and marched in
large groups past rooting pigs, smoking garbage and U.N. armored personnel
carriers to vote.
     Exactly 20 years after the dictatorial rule of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc"
Duvalier crumbled, Tuesday's vote offered hope for an end to the
instability that has crippled Haiti since then.
     Preval draws support from the dire slums where Aristide was strongest.
He was president from 1996 to 2001, an era of calm between Aristide's two
terms, and is Haiti's only elected leader to complete his term and hand
over power peacefully.
     But he is opposed by the same wealthy elite that helped drive Aristide
from power.
     Pro-Aristide gang leaders blamed for a wave of kidnappings over the
last year recently changed tack by backing the poll, and the level of
violence dropped dramatically. Still, experts warn Preval's supporters
could turn violent if he loses or if they suspect fraud, and that
anti-Aristide groups might be intent on keeping Preval out of power.
     There was no doubting ordinary Haitians' commitment. At a
Port-au-Prince school where thugs killed voters with guns and machetes in
1987, halting one of Haiti's first attempts at democratic elections, Molene
Zephyr overcame her fear to vote.
     "I was in the line when they came to shoot here in 1987. I ran and hid
myself behind a wall and many other people did the same. I was afraid to
come here today because of what happened. But I came because I want to see
change in the country."

   (Additional reporting by Tom Brown in Miami)