27779: (news) Chamberlain: Preval says he won Haiti election, charges fraud (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   (Recasts to add quotes, details)

     By Joseph Guyler Delva and Michael Christie

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Former Haitian President
Rene Preval on Tuesday claimed victory in last week's election but said
there had been "massive fraud" and the government had agreed to hold off
publishing final results pending an investigation.
     "We are sure of having won in the first round," Preval said at a news
conference near the Haitian capital, which his supporters paralyzed with
flaming barricades and street demonstrations on Monday.
     "We are convinced there was massive fraud and gross errors that
affected the process," he said in his first significant comments since last
Tuesday's vote.
     The impoverished Caribbean nation of 8.5 million has been on
tenterhooks for the past week amid growing concern that election officials
were manipulating the first ballot since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed
two years ago to force Preval, his one-time ally, into a runoff.
     Results published on Monday and unchanged early Tuesday said Preval
had 48.7 percent of the vote with 90 percent counted. He needs a simple
majority to avoid a runoff.
     "If they publish these results as they are, we will contest them and
if Lespwa (Preval's political movement) contests them, the Haitian people
will contest them," Preval said.
     Port-au-Prince, a chaotic city at the best of times, was more peaceful
on Tuesday. Some roads were still blocked by rocks, tree branches and other
debris but traffic was moving.
     Preval called on his supporters to take down the barricades to allow
people to get to work and school. "Continue to protest, but respect the
rights of others," he said.
     Haiti's interim government on Monday evening pleaded with Haitians to
stay calm as election 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,
     "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.
     Another ex-president, Leslie Manigat, was in second place with 11.8
percent and industrialist Charles Baker, seen as the candidate of the
wealthy elite, was third with 7.9 percent.
     Preval said his campaign had credible evidence that he would not need
to win the presidency in a second round of voting scheduled for March 19.
He cited an independent tabulation by the National Democratic Institute, a
U.S.-based nonprofit organization, which showed he had carried 54 percent
of the vote.
     "The Haitian people know we have won in the first round," Preval said,
adding that the government had agreed to hold off publishing results until
his claims could be investigated.
     Monday's 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 in Tabarre, just north of
the capital.
     The United Nations denied the accusation, saying the soldiers had
fired warning shots in the air.
     Separately, the council unanimously adopted a resolution extending the
mandate of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti for another six months
until Aug. 15, 2006.
     Haiti's short democratic history has been plagued by violence.
Aristide, a former priest who is a champion of the poor, was sent into
exile in each of his two terms in office.





 REUTERS