27740: (news) Chamberlain: Preval supporters protest election results (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva and Jim Loney

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Protesters paralyzed the
capital with burning barricades on Monday and stormed a luxury hotel to
demand results from Haiti's nearly week-old election as ex-President Rene
Preval fell further below the 50 percent needed to win the presidency.
     Witnesses said U.N. peacekeepers fired into a crowd of protesters in
Tabarre, just north of Port-au-Prince, killing at least two people, but a
U.N. spokesman said the troops only shot into the air.
     The peaceful atmosphere that surrounded last Tuesday's balloting, the
first since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted by an armed revolt two years
ago, began to unravel six days later amid charges that election officials
were tampering with results to prevent Preval from taking a first-round
victory.
     "No vote will be stolen," interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue told
Haitians in a television address following a day of unrest. "We ask
everyone to go back home, to stay calm and the results will be published."
     Like Aristide, Preval is viewed as a champion of the Caribbean
country's poor masses, most of whom live on $1 a day, but he is distrusted
by the small and wealthy elite that helped push Aristide from office on
Feb. 29, 2004.
     In Tabarre, Jordanian troops started shooting after protesters refused
to let them pass a barricade, according to eyewitnesses. "They got angry.
They opened fire at the crowd and two people were killed," said Carl
Gregoire.
     U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said peacekeepers fired two warning
rounds into the air. "They did not injure anybody. Later, shots were fired
by unidentified individuals in the same area," he said. "I can assure you
no individuals were wounded by U.N. peacekeepers."
     Across the chaotic capital, traffic ground to a halt, schools shut
down and the U.N. told its civilian employees to stay home. Demonstrators
piled wrecked cars and tree branches in the streets after the latest
results.
     With 90 percent of the vote counted, the Provisional Electoral Council
said Preval had 48.7 percent.
     Flaming barricades of old tires blocked streets and black smoke rose
from the area of the airport, the seaport and a half dozen other locations
in the sprawling city.
     Hundreds of protesters, dancing and chanting "Preval is President!"
smashed through the steel gates of the luxury Montana Hotel and swarmed
through the complex. Most of the foreign press and some election observers
are staying at the hotel.
     "We have voted. We will not vote again. Preval is president," said
Michael Jean, accusing election officials of manipulating the vote count.
"Give us the results."
     Facing grim U.N. police in blue helmets, the protesters shouted "if
you shoot, we will burn the hotel."
     South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Nobel peace laureate,
appeared on a balcony, gesturing to the crowd to calm down.
     Waving tree branches and twigs with three leaves representing Preval's
political coalition, known as "Lespwa," or "The Hope," protesters stormed
through the hotel lobby and along corridors, banging on doors. Hundreds
gathered on the pool deck and dozens jumped into the pool.
     When initial results were announced several days ago, Preval held 61
percent of the vote, comfortably over the majority needed to avoid a runoff
on March 19.
     The results on Monday had another ex-president, Leslie Manigat, at
11.8 percent and the main candidate for the business elite, industrialist
Charles Baker, third at 7.9 percent.
     At least four of the 33 candidates who ran for president said on
Monday that Preval had won -- Evans Paul, Turneb Delpe, Dany Toussaint and
Marc Bazin.
     "I know Preval has won the election with 54.9 percent," Bazin said in
a radio interview. "We don't have the right to ignore the choice of the
people."
      Preval flew to the capital in a U.N. helicopter from his mountain
hometown of Marmelade. He met with officials in the city but did not
immediately address his supporters. Preval complained on Sunday that
election officials had released conflicting results. Two members of the
nine-member electoral council have said the vote was being manipulated.

  (Additional reporting by Oliver Ellrodt in Marmelade)