27610: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti election gets mixed report card (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Jim Loney

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 9 (Reuters) - International observers on
Thursday gave Haitian voters high marks for patience and determination in
Tuesday's election but criticized election officials for late poll openings
and irregularities.
     Voting for a new president and legislature two years after an armed
revolt sent Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile, Haitians turned out in large
numbers and swamped unprepared polling stations, resulting in chaos during
the first few hours of balloting, but little of the violence that had been
feared.
     Two observer teams, representing the European Union and a group of
eight countries in the Americas, lauded Haitian voters for persevering in
the face of problems at the polls.
     The report card from the European Union observers was preliminary and
would be followed at the end of the election by a fuller analysis.
     The Haitian people have clearly and freely expressed their desire to
build a future of democracy," said Jean-Pierre Kingsley, chairman of the
International Mission for Monitoring Haitian Elections.
     Both missions said voters lacked privacy at polling stations. Flimsy
cardboard screens were set up on tables or in some cases, on floors with
voters crouching behind them to write on their ballots.
     Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council "did not possess sufficient
administrative and organizational capacity for the conduct of elections,"
said Johan Van Hecke, head of the EU mission.
     Van Hecke, a member of the European Parliament, told reporters that
"overall, the administration of the process could have been of a higher
standard," and urged authorities to improve their performance by a second
round vote on March 19.
     It was unclear on Thursday whether a second round, held if no
candidates obtains more than 50 percent of votes, would be necessary.
     Early indications suggested ex-president Rene Preval, a one-time
Aristide ally, might have won a majority needed to avoid a run-off. The
election was Haiti's first since Aristide was driven from power in 2004 by
a rebellion of armed gangs and former soldiers, and under U.S. and French
pressure to quit.
     Kingsley, whose group represents Canada, the United States, Brazil,
Chile, Mexico, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, said the late
openings and other polling problems may have caused some voters to give up
and go home, but "I think that that impact was most probably minimal."
     The group had more than 120 observers who visited 280 of Haiti's 800
polling centers.
     Violence was rampant in Haiti during the run-up to the election.
Kidnappings were virtually a daily occurrence and many candidates avoided
the Cite Soleil slum in the capital, the scene of gun battles between U.N.
peacekeepers and gangs.
     The EU team noted the campaign was "limited in nature" but said it was
held "in an atmosphere that was largely peaceful and in which freedoms of
expression, assembly and association were largely respected."
     Hecke said EU observers witnessed no major problems with vote
counting.