27898 (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Elections (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 18 (AP) -- Opponents of Haiti's president-elect
could use the country's disputed election result to try and weaken his
government "if he doesn't perform," the top American diplomat in Haiti said
Saturday.
   Rene Preval was declared the winner Thursday after electoral authorities
decided to divide 85,000 blank votes among the candidates to avoid a
runoff.
   The move gave Preval the 51 percent of the vote he needed for outright
victory, drawing angry complaints from his two nearest rivals, neither of
who polled close to Preval's numbers in the Feb. 7 vote.
   Tim Carney, the acting U.S. ambassador in Haiti, said Preval clearly
would have won the election but acknowledged the disputed outcome could
hurt his government if he fails in office.
   "If he doesn't perform, yes it weakens him," Carney said during an
interview with The Associated Press at his residence. "If he does perform,
nobody will remember it."
   Preval had been just short of a majority with more than 90 percent of
the vote tabulated. Haitian officials decided late Wednesday to divide the
blank ballots cast among the candidates in proportion to the percentage
they had already received.
   If Preval had fallen short of a majority, he would have faced a March
runoff against the second-place finisher, Leslie Manigat.
   Manigat, also a former president, has accused election officials of
violating the rules to declare Preval the winner, while the third-place
finisher, Charles Henri Baker, all but accused Preval of fraud.
   Baker said Friday that declaring Preval the winner without a runoff
"presages a somber future for democracy in Haiti."
   On Saturday, Preval remained at his sister's gated house in the hills
east of the capital, where he has been meeting with politicians -- both
allies and opponents -- in an effort to form a new government.
   Haitians, meanwhile, waited to hear how Preval plans to deal with
violence, poverty and his stance on his former ally, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, who is living in exile in South Africa after being ousted as
president by a violent rebellion two years ago.
   South African President Thabo Mbeki on Saturday said Preval's victory
was "an expression of the democratic will of the people of Haiti" but made
no mention of Aristide, who still has wide support among Haiti's poor.
   Preval has not said whether he would allow Aristide to return, a move
Carney acknowledged some of Preval's supporters may expect.
   "I suspect a pretty good number (of supporters), especially these gang
leaders in Cite Soleil, really think they can make Preval believe he either
owes them or they can buffalo him" into bringing Aristide back, Carney
said, referring to the seaside slum that is a base of support for Aristide
and Preval.
   Maryse Narcisse, Aristide's spokeswoman, declined to say whether
Aristide and Preval were in contact.
   Carney doubted there was much popular support in Haiti to bring back
Aristide.
   "I think the elections confirmed that Aristide is a man of the past,
unlikely to have any role in Haiti's future," he said.