27665: (news) Chamberlain: Preval protesters demand results of 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) - Hundreds of people marched
in Haiti's capital on Saturday in support of ex-president Rene Preval, and
some accused elections officials of trying to steal the first vote since
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted two years ago.
     Preval, the one-time Aristide ally was leading with just over 50
percent of the vote -- the majority he would need to avoid a second round
of voting on March 19.
     Four days after the election, less than two-thirds of the votes had
been counted, creating suspicion among residents of Preval's stronghold in
the Cite Soleil slum that the vote was being manipulated.
     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.
     Preval's campaign demanded copies of vote-count forms after the latest
tallies from Tuesday's election showed at least 105,000 spoiled ballots.
     An elections council member said the number of spoiled ballots was
"suspect" and called for an investigation.
     With 63 percent of polling stations reporting and about 1.4 million
ballots tallied so far, another ex-president, Leslie Manigat, was running
second with 11.9 percent and industrialist Charles Baker, considered the
candidate of the wealthy elite, was third with 7.8 percent.
     "If they don't give us Preval, there will be no peace. Somebody paid
the election council to give away the result," Marie, 46, shouted. "We did
not vote for Manigat. We did not vote for Baker. We voted for Preval."
     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 a stronghold of Aristide,
demonstrators ran through the streets past tumbledown shanties and open
sewers, waving tree branches and shouting "Preval is our president!" They
demanded a speedier vote count.
     "We voted for Preval to move this country," said Jean-Paul LeBlante,
38. "If there is a problem (with the election) we will have an explosion.
There will not be enough water to put out the fire in this country."
     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 just over half in Friday's
results, 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 that the ballots that clearly indicated who
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.