27673: (news) Chamberlain: Preval drops below 50 percent in Haiti election (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva and Jim Loney

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The prospects for a runoff
election in Haiti's presidential race grew as former President Rene
Preval's vote total fell below 50 percent, according to new results issued
on Saturday.
     With 72 percent of the vote counted, Preval had 49.6 percent to 11.6
percent for another ex-president, Leslie Manigat, and 8.1 percent for
industrialist Charles Baker. Preval needs a simple majority to avoid a
runoff on March 19.
     In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of people marched in support of Preval,
and some accused elections officials of trying to steal Haiti's first vote
since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted two years ago.
     Four days after the election, less than three-quarters of the votes
had been counted, creating suspicion among residents of Preval's stronghold
in the Cite Soleil slum that the election was being manipulated.
     Election officials said they would have the final totals on Sunday.
     Demonstrators swarmed the National Palace, where they tore down large
posters of the nearly three dozen presidential candidates that had been
attached to the metal fence surrounding the palace grounds -- all but
Preval's.
     "If they don't give us Preval, there will be no peace. Somebody paid
the election council to give away the result," a woman who identified
herself as Marie, 46, shouted. "We did not vote for Manigat. We did not
vote for Baker. We voted for Preval."
     Preval's campaign demanded copies of vote-count forms after elections
officials reported on Friday that more than 105,000 ballots had been
rejected.
     An elections council member said the number of spoiled ballots was
"suspect" and called for an investigation.
     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 oust Aristide.
     In Cite Soleil, Haiti's largest slum and an Aristide stronghold,
demonstrators ran through the streets past shanties and open sewers, waving
tree branches and shouting, "Preval is our president!" They demanded a
speedier vote count.
     Demonstrators complained about Preval's shrinking lead. He held 61
percent after the first results were released on Thursday and seemed headed
toward a first-round victory. But his total dropped on Friday to 50.3
percent and to less than half on Saturday, leading some to believe
elections officials were trying to fix the vote.
     About 7.6 percent of the ballots counted so far were rejected. In some
places, the number was much higher. In the southern Nippes department, for
example, 14.1 percent of ballots were spoiled, and in the Centre
department, 12.9 percent.
     "It is suspect," said Patrick Fequiere, an electoral council member
who often finds himself at odds with other members. "It should be
investigated."
     Baker, the third-place candidate, has also asked for an investigation
into possible fraud.
     International observers have said there were irregularities at the
polls but probably not enough to taint the result.
     Claude Parent, director of a mission representing eight countries in
the Americas, including Canada and the United States, said some voters put
an X over the picture of the candidate rather than in the circle next to
the picture.
     At some polling stations those ballots were counted and at others they
were rejected, he said, adding the ballots that clearly indicated which
candidate the voter meant to choose should be counted.
     "We think this election should be something that the international
community should accept and we think the Haitian people should accept it,"
Parent said.