27695: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Elections (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By ANDREW SELSKY

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 12 (AP) -- Protests in support of presidential
favorite Rene Preval broke out in Haiti's capital Sunday as a slow vote
count indicated he was just shy of the 50 percent he needs to win outright
and avoid a runoff.
   Some Preval supporters threatened the demonstrations could turn violent
if Preval is not declared the first-round winner, accusing the electoral
council of manipulating the count. Election officials deny wrongdoing.
   "If they take the election from Preval, it's not going to go smoothly,"
said Robert Antoine, a 23-year-old from the Bel-Air slum. "The people voted
massively for Preval, and it seems the electoral commission is playing
games with the results."
   In the seaside slum of Cite Soleil, another Preval stronghold, about
1,000 demonstrators wearing Preval T-shirts and blowing horns prepared to
march to the electoral council's offices. In the Port-au-Prince area of
Delmas, some 6,000 protesters boisterously marched down a main street,
singing "Our hearts beat for Preval!"
   Preval, a former president and champion of the poor, was leading a field
of 33 candidates with 49.1 percent of the vote, five days after Haitians
swarmed the polls to elect a new president. Officials say 75 percent of the
ballots from Tuesday's elections have been counted.
   Barring a change, Preval would fall just short of the 50 percent plus
one vote he needs to avoid a March 19 runoff with the runner-up. Leslie
Manigat, also a former president, was second with 11.7 percent of the vote.
   Officials said final results could be released by late Sunday, although
the count has been slowed by frequent delays. An estimated 2.2 million
people cast ballots, or 63 percent of registered voters.
   Thousands of Preval partisans flooded the downtown Port-au-Prince and
marched peacefully past the national palace on Saturday, declaring Preval
the winner and demanding the results.
   The weekend protests were a break in the eerie calm that had settled
over the normally tense capital since the vote. Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu
presided over Sunday services at Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince and
urged Haitians to be patient.
   "They've started well, let them finish the race well," said Tutu, the
retired Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa. "And I think they
will, that they will be peaceful and that they will accept the results of
the elections."
   Haiti's Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and U.N. envoy to Haiti
Juan Gabriel Valdes attended the Mass, accompanied by armed security
guards.
   About 125,000 ballots -- or 7.5 percent of the votes cast -- have been
declared invalid because of irregularities, raising suspicion among Preval
supporters.
   Jacques Bernard, the council's director general, said Saturday the
ballots were voided because they were blank or not clearly marked, among
other reasons. He denied the council voided many votes for Preval.
   "The decision to null votes is made by individual polling stations,"
Bernard told reporters.
   Haiti has been without an elected leadership since President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a rebellion two years ago.
   Preval, a 63-year-old former Aristide protege, declined to comment on
the results while awaiting official word in Marmelade, his rural hometown.