27702: (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) -- A member of Haiti's electoral council
said results of the presidential elections were being manipulated, echoing
complaints by throngs of supporters of Rene Preval, who poured into the
streets on Sunday with angry allegations of fraud.
   With 75 percent of votes counted, Preval was falling short of winning
Tuesday's elections outright by less than a percentage point.
   "According to me, there's a certain level of manipulation," Pierre
Richard Duchemin, an electoral council member, told The Associated Press,
adding that "there is an effort to stop people from asking questions" about
the tabulation process.
   Duchemin said Sunday he needed access to tallies of vote counts in hopes
of learning who was behind the alleged manipulation. He called for an
investigation.
   Preval's supporters poured out of different neighborhoods of the capital
and converged on the electoral council headquarters. Blowing horns and
pounding drums, they denounced Jacques Bernard, director-general of the
nine-member electoral council.
   "Jacques Bernard is a thief. He doesn't know how to count!" they
chanted. A cordon of police clad in camouflage and carrying rifles and
shotguns blocked their path.
   Bernard denied accusations the council voided many votes for Preval, a
former president.
   Suspicion has risen among many Haitians that the results were being
manipulated in the five days since voters turned out in droves to elect a
new government. It will replace an interim government installed after
then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a bloody rebellion two
years ago.
   Jean-Henoc Faroul, the president of an electoral district with 400,000
voters northeast of the capital, accused the electoral commission of trying
to force a runoff, saying tally sheets from Preval strongholds have
vanished.
   "The electoral council is trying to do what it can to diminish the
percentage of Preval so it goes to a second round," Faroul told The
Associated Press. Faroul said he wanted Preval to win but added that he
would be protesting if any candidate was being denied votes by
manipulation.
   "I am not only the president of an electoral board, but I also vote,"
Faroul said. "And I want my vote and the votes of all the people to be
respected."
   Preval demonstrators threatened violence if Preval is not declared the
first-round winner. They drove and walked Sunday evening to the upscale
Montana hotel, in the Petionville suburb in the hills above Port-au-Prince,
to confront election council members. The electoral council abruptly
canceled a Sunday evening news conference.
   "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."
   Duchemin accused Bernard of "megalomania," saying he had blocked other
council members from getting information on the tabulation process.
   "What we're talking about now is a magician that is sitting down and
saying 'I am the only one doing something ... everything I'm doing is
perfect,'" Duchemin said. "We're playing with the future of this country
and this is something we can't afford."
   Preval was leading 33 candidates with 49.1 percent of the vote, 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.
   South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, presiding over services at
Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, urged Haitians to be patient.
   "They've started well, let them finish the race well," Tutu, the retired
Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, told the AP. "And I think
they will, that they will be peaceful and that they will accept the results
of the elections."
   An estimated 2.2 million people cast ballots, or 63 percent of
registered voters.
   About 125,000 ballots -- or 7.5 percent of the votes cast -- have been
declared invalid because of irregularities, raising suspicion among Preval
supporters that polling officials are trying to steal the election. Another
4 percent of the ballots were blank but were still added into the total,
making it harder Preval to obtain the 50 percent plus one vote needed.