27675: Craig (news) AP Blog on Haiti Elections (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig


AP Blog on Haiti Elections
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:45 p.m. ET

This is the fourth of periodic dispatches by Andrew Selsky, the AP's Chief of 
Caribbean News, who is in Haiti covering the first elections held since 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a February 2004 rebellion.

------

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

SATURDAY, Feb. 11, 6:06 p.m. local

It is four days after Haitians went to the polls to elect a new government.

Four days, and still no winner declared.

If it takes much longer, these elections will seem like elections in.....the 
United States. It took 36 days for President Bush to be declared the winner 
over Al Gore after the 2000 elections.

The people of Haiti are waiting for the results just as patiently as they 
waited in long lines for hours and hours to vote on Tuesday.

But will they remain patient?

Right now, leading candidate Rene Preval has 50.33 percent of the vote, with 
1.28 million valid votes counted (and 105,450 nullified). No one has yet said 
how many people voted in all, or when the vote count will be completed.

This is a cliffhanger, because although Preval is far ahead of the pack, he 
needs 50 percent plus one vote to win outright and avoid a March runoff with 
the second-place finisher.

Preval is very popular among the poor. How long will their patience last? The 
poor have been ruled by brutal dictatorships through much of Haiti's history. 
If Preval dips below 50 percent, there is likely to be suspicion that someone 
monkeyed with the numbers. One voter told me on election day that heads would 
roll and buildings would burn if Preval didn't win.

It is a phrase that resonates in Haiti. Army Gen. Jean-Jacques Dessalines 
uttered those words when he led a rebellion against French troops and colonists 
in 1802. Many of the French were decapitated, their homes torched.

I've seen a lot of poverty around the world.

Yesterday, as the sun was sinking low, my colleagues Brennan and Evens and I 
went to the poorest part of the Cite Soleil slum.

I don't think I've seen worse. Not in Africa. Not in Latin America.

This fetid neighborhood was right against the sea. Kids were running around 
barefoot over trash that had decomposed and been flattened by thousands of 
other feet. It stunk. My shoes still carry some of the odor. I thought of all 
the cuts and infections the kids could get. The homes were miserable -- pieces 
of tin hammered together.

Haitians have a lot riding on these elections. They want to see their lives 
improve. If they improve just a tiny bit, it will make a huge difference, 
because so many Haitians have next to nothing now.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-Blog.html