27734: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Elections (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By ANDREW SELSKY

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 13 (AP) -- They frolicked in the swimming pool,
reclined on lounge chairs and gaped at the tennis courts.
   For a while, some of the protesters who have paralyzed the capital with
marches and barricades sampled the good life Monday after they stormed into
the luxury Montana Hotel, where electoral officials announce results of
Haiti's disputed presidential election.
   Most of the tens of thousands of protesters in Port-au-Prince are poor
and revere Rene Preval, who six days after the election was the clear
winner with 90 percent of ballots counted but was just short of a majority
to avoid a runoff.
   Preval's supporters claimed electoral officials tampered with results.
They erected roadblocks across the capital Monday and set some ablaze. At
least one protester was killed, but U.N. peacekeepers denied witness
accounts that they had shot him.
   By the thousands, they swarmed into the grounds of the Montana Hotel,
perched on a hilltop overlooking the slums of Port-au-Prince. Blue-helmeted
U.N. peacekeepers armed with assault rifles watched warily from the grounds
and the roof. Thousands of protesters, waving Preval campaign posters and
tree branches, jammed into the lobby where they jumped up and down in
unison and chanted: "Now is the time! Now is the time!"
   Dozens somersaulted fully clothed into the aquamarine waters of the
hotel swimming pool, turning the water into froth as they splashed around
-- a rare treat in a country where most people lack running water. They
stretched out on chaise lounges and ran up and down the hotel stairs past
rooms costing $200 and up a night.
   South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, who is visiting
Haiti, came out of his suite to appeal for calm. One of his security agents
said the South African had refused to be evacuated by the helicopter
plucking guests from the roof.
   Hours later, the protesters retreated. There was no violence.
   After several hours, the crowd began to file out of the hotel.
   "We came looking for someone to give us the real (election) results," a
30-year-old Preval organizer who identified himself only as Sanpeur said as
protesters left the hotel grounds. "We made them leave because we don't
want disorder. We did not come here looking for violence."
   Preval later returned to the capital for the first time since the
election, arriving in a U.N. helicopter from his rural home in north Haiti.
   "We have questions about the electoral process," he told reporters after
meeting with the top U.N. official in Haiti and ambassadors from the United
States, France, Canada and Brazil. "We want to see how we can save the
process."
   He then flew in a helicopter over smoldering barricades in the capital
to meet with Haiti's interim leaders "see what kind of solution we can
find," Preval said.
   "We have a problem with the way the (electoral) process was done and we
want to resolve it," Preval said.
   Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue appealed for calm in a nationally
broadcast address. "People, don't stay in the streets," he said. "I'm
asking you to go home. ... The transitional government is not stealing your
vote."
   In the middle-class Tabarre neighborhood, Associated Press journalists
saw the body of a man on a street, blood soaking Preval's image emblazoned
on his T-shirt. Dozens of witnesses said Jordanian U.N. peacekeepers in a
jeep opened fire, killing two people and wounding four. The body of the
second victim was not seen.
   "We were peacefully protesting when the U.N. started shooting. There
were a lot of shots. Everybody ran," said Walrick Michel, 22.
   U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst first denied that peacekeepers fired any
rounds, then later said they had fired in the air.
   "We fired two warning shots into the air and we didn't injure anyone,"
he said.
   The election will replace an interim government installed after former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a bloody rebellion two years
ago. A popularly elected government with a clear mandate from the voters is
seen as crucial to avoiding a political and economic meltdown in the
Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. Gangs have gone on kidnapping sprees
and factories have closed for lack of security.
   With about 90 percent of the vote counted, Preval was leading with 48.7
percent, Haiti's electoral council said on its Web site. His nearest
opponent was Leslie Manigat, another former president, who had 11.8
percent.
   But of the 2.2 million ballots cast, about 125,000 ballots have been
declared invalid because of irregularities, raising suspicion among Preval
supporters that polling officials were rigging the election.
   Another 4 percent of the ballots were blank but were still added into
the total, making it harder for Preval to obtain the 50 percent plus one
vote needed.
   Jacques Bernard, director-general of the nine-member electoral council,
denied accusations that the council voided many votes for Preval.
   Council member Patrick Fequiere said Bernard was releasing results
without notifying other council members, who did not know where Bernard was
obtaining his information. And another council member, Pierre Richard
Duchemin, said he was being denied access to the tabulation process.
   ------
   Associated Press Writer Stevenson Jacobs contributed to this report.