27584: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti counts votes, Preval dances (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

  (Adds Preval quote, details)

     By Jim Loney and Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 8 (Reuters) - U.N. troops moved ballots by
helicopter and mule across rural Haiti and the front-runner danced in a
village square on Wednesday after the country's first presidential election
since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted two years ago.
     Vote counting moved into high gear but election authorities did not
release any official results on Wednesday. They said they might have a few
results on Thursday but a more complete vote count would take at least
another two days.
     Tensions ran high and at least four people died in election-day
incidents but a feared explosion of violence failed to materialize as
Haitians cast ballots on Tuesday in what could prove the latest election to
trouble Washington.
     U.S. officials pressed Aristide to quit Haiti after a month-long armed
revolt in 2004 only to find his one-time ally Rene Preval the election
favorite.
     Preval, who retreated to his northern hometown of Marmelade for the
election, ventured into the town square on Wednesday and danced to a bolero
song played by a local band with villagers cheering him on.
     Tallies at a handful of polling stations in the capital had Preval
leading handily. When told the unofficial word in Port-au-Prince was that
he had won the election, Preval said: "It makes me happy, but I'm not going
to answer that until I have an official source."
     There was no widespread election bloodshed in a country that has seen
repeated coups and into which U.S. troops have been sent three times in the
past century. Haiti was plagued by kidnappings and gang violence in the
months before the vote and one of the dead on Tuesday was a policeman
killed by a mob after he shot someone.
     The United Nations and Organization of American States said the
election appeared to be a step forward in impoverished Haiti's quest to
establish a stable democracy after years of dictatorship and military rule.
     U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised Haitians for a relatively
calm vote and appealed to them to respect the results.
     "As the new authorities assume their responsibilities, it will be
essential that all political and social actors come together in a spirit of
national reconciliation and dialogue ...," he said in a statement issued in
New York.
     Counters worked overnight by candlelight to tally votes in places
where there was no power. Mules retrieved ballots from remote villages and
helicopters were used to fly them to the capital, U.N. officials said.
     A tally of 20 polling stations in a trash-strewn warehouse near the
Cite Soleil slum produced an expected result -- 75 percent for ex-president
Preval. His top rivals, former President Leslie Manigat and industrialist
Charles Baker, had 10 and 3 percent respectively.
     The sample of about 3,700 votes was likely not representative because
it was so close to a Preval stronghold.
     But even a couple of polling stations in Petionville, the
Port-au-Prince suburb where many of Haiti's wealthy live, appeared to have
gone heavily for Preval, 63, who led Haiti from 1996 to 2001, between
Aristide's two presidencies.
     Preval, who is opposed by the elites who helped push  Aristide into
exile in South Africa in 2004, must capture more than 50 percent of the
vote to avoid a runoff on March 19.
     In an election carried out under the watchful eyes of some 9,000 U.N.
peacekeepers, many poor voters cried fraud when polling stations near the
Cite Soleil slum failed to open on time, reinforcing concerns that the
authorities would try to prevent slum residents from voting.
     Businessman Baker, who ran second in opinion polls, said the election
had "a lot of problems," citing late openings and reports that some people
voted more than once.
     The turnout was among the best in the short democratic history of the
poorest country in the Americas, officials said.
     Some voters said the heavy turnout proved the people of Haiti -- beset
by poverty, violence and political turmoil -- desperately wanted democracy
despite their nation's struggles since the brutal Duvalier family
dictatorship ended in 1986.
     Critics accused Aristide of corruption and despotism during his second
term but he remains popular in the slums. Preval has gained the support of
many Aristide loyalists.