27647: (news) Chamberlain: Preval's lead narrows in Haiti election (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Jim Loney

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Former President Rene Preval
could be headed for a runoff in Haiti's first election since Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was ousted two years ago, according to the latest election results
issued on Friday.
     With about half the votes counted, Preval held 50.3 percent, just
barely above the majority he would need to avoid a runoff on March 19. In
results released on Thursday, Preval held 61 percent, when only 15 percent
had been counted, and appeared on his way to an outright victory.
     Another former president, Leslie Manigat, was in second place with
11.4 percent and industrialist Charles Baker held third with 8.3 percent,
according to the results published on the Provisional Electoral Council's
Web site.
     Preval, a protege of Aristide and the favored candidate of Haiti's
poor masses, was heavily favored to win Tuesday's election, in which Baker,
the candidate of the impoverished Caribbean nation's wealthy elite, has
asked for an investigation into possible fraud.
     Baker said on Friday he had asked election officials to investigate
whether people were allowed to vote more than once because voter lists were
not followed. "We had a lot of (polling station) volunteers who said they
saw people voting five times, seven times, eight times," he said.
     International observers have said they saw some irregularities at
polling stations but have not suggested the results were tainted by fraud.
     A victory for Preval could prove unsettling to the United States,
which worked to push Aristide from power two years ago. On Friday,
Washington urged Preval, who maintained a low profile in his mountain
hometown of Marmelade in the north, to oppose Aristide's return from exile
in South Africa.
     Preval inherited Aristide's strong support in the slums of
Port-au-Prince and his possible victory concerned the wealthy elite who
helped push Aristide from office.
     Preval, who led the poorest nation in the Americas from 1996 to 2001,
has not claimed victory. But he said earlier on Friday he was not surprised
by the results known so far.
     "During the campaign I felt the enthusiasm which would translate into
a favorable vote for me," he told the Miami Herald and Reuters television
in an interview.
     Preval, 63, was president between the two terms of Aristide, a
firebrand former Roman Catholic priest accused of despotism and corruption
before he was driven out.
     Although he has put some distance between himself and his mentor,
Preval has said there is nothing to stop Aristide from returning to Haiti
from his South African exile.

   (Additional reporting by Oliver Ellrodt in Marmelade)