27812: (news) Chamberlain: Canada troubled by Haiti vote fraud allegations (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     OTTAWA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Canada, a major aid donor to Haiti, is
troubled by allegations that last week's presidential election in the
impoverished Caribbean nation was marred by fraud, Foreign Minister Peter
MacKay said on Wednesday.
     Counting of ballots stopped on Wednesday as Haitian electoral
authorities bowed to a demand by Rene Preval, the leading candidate, for a
fraud inquiry.
     Thousands of people protested after charred ballots were found on a
garbage dump. Some demonstrators chanted, "Look what they did with our
votes," as they marched past the U.S., Canadian and French embassies.
     "We've invested an enormous amount of both financial and political
resources to helping with the democratic process in Haiti so it's
troubling, to say the least, that these allegations have now emerged,"
MacKay said.
     "We knew just from the appearance of the process that the potential
was there and that was everyone's worst fear. (But) we're very hopeful and
remain optimistic that this is going to be dealt with properly," he told
Reuters in a phone interview.
     Canada -- which donated C$30 million ($26 million) to help finance the
election -- has a large community of immigrants from French-speaking Haiti
and sent more than 100 monitors to oversee the vote.
     In July 2004, Canada pledged more than C$180 million in aid to Haiti
over two years. It has also sent 100 police officers to help the United
Nations stabilization mission based in the country.

     ($1=$1.16 Canadian)