27754: (news) Chamberlain: Preval won, some rival Haiti candidates say (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva and Jim Loney

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 14 (Reuters) - A growing chorus of rival
candidates said on Tuesday Haitian voters had chosen ex-President Rene
Preval in elections still undecided a week after the vote, while the
government urged calm to allow the count to be completed.
     The Haitian capital was more peaceful early Tuesday after pro-Preval
demonstrators had paralyzed the city with flaming barricades and street
marches on Monday demanding that he be allowed to take the presidency. Some
roads were still blocked by rocks, tree branches and other debris but
traffic was moving.
     Haiti's interim government pleaded with Haitians to stay calm as
elections officials counted the last 10 percent of ballots. The government
was appointed after Aristide fled the impoverished Caribbean nation in the
face of an armed rebellion and under intense international pressure to
quit,
     Preval, a one-time ally of deposed leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide had
48.7 percent at last report. He won the first round easily but his
supporters and some elections officials said the count was being
manipulated to prevent him from taking the office without a run-off. He
needed 50 percent plus one vote for an outright win.
     "The people elected Preval. I respect their will," Dany Toussaint, a
presidential candidate who won about 7,000 of more than 2 million votes
cast, said on local radio. "I recognize they did not vote for me."
     Other presidential candidates also conceded Preval had won, including
Chavannes Jeune, who is running fourth, former Port-au-Prince Mayor Evans
Paul, who won just over 2 percent of the vote, and ex-Prime Minister Marc
Bazin, who took under 1 percent.
     "A runoff ... would not solve anything," Paul said. "Let us look for
balance in parliament and forget about the second round. That will be proof
of political intelligence."
     Preval had just under the needed 50 percent with 90 percent of the
vote counted. Another ex-president, Leslie Manigat, had 11.8 and
industrialist Charles Baker, seen as the candidate of the wealthy elite,
had 7.9 percent.
     Tens of thousands of Preval supporters marched in the streets on
Monday, burning tires and blocking roads to demand Preval be named
president immediately.
     The demonstrations were largely peaceful, but witnesses said Jordanian
U.N. troops -- part of a peacekeeping force providing security in Haiti --
killed two people when they opened fire at protesters in Tabarre, just
north of the capital.
     The United Nations denied the accusation, saying the soldiers had
fired warning shots in the air.
     In a nationally televised address late on Monday, interim Prime
Minister Gerard Latortue asked for patience and assured voters they would
get an honest vote count.
     "No vote will be stolen," Latortue said. "We ask everyone to go back
home, to stay calm and the results will be published."
     Security was strengthened at the luxury Montana hotel in the hills
overlooking Port-au-Prince, where elections officials had been releasing
partial vote counts and holding news conferences.
     Preval supporters had burst through the hotel's steel gates and
invaded the upscale resort on Monday, demanding a final vote count and
chanting "Preval is president!" On Tuesday, a white U.N. armored personnel
carrier was stationed at the bottom of the winding road leading to the
hotel and military police guarded the entry.
     Haiti's short democratic history has been plagued by violence.
Aristide, a former priest who is a champion of Haiti's poor, was sent into
exile in each of his two terms in office.




 REUTERS