28343: Craig (news) Polling Stations Nearly Empty in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From:  Dan Craig


April 21, 2006


  Polling Stations Nearly Empty in Haiti

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 12:01 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Polling stations were nearly empty Friday
in a crucial legislative runoff intended to give this impoverished
Caribbean nation its first popularly elected government since a revolt
ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide two years ago.

The absence of lines and apparent public enthusiasm for the election was
in sharp contrast to February's presidential vote, which returned former
President Rene Preval to power.

''It's a slow start,'' said David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the U.N.
mission that was called to Haiti to help restore order following
Aristide's ouster. ''We think some people are waiting to see if they can
vote later in the day. We expect it to pick up.''

Thousands of U.N. peacekeepers fanned out across the country to guard
polling stations, but only a tiny fraction of Haiti's 3.5 million
registered voters had arrived to cast ballots shortly after voting
opened at dawn. There were no immediate reports of disturbances or other
problems.

Hundreds of candidates from more than a dozen parties are seeking 127
legislative seats. The race features candidates from a broad political
spectrum, including members of Aristide's center-left Lavalas party,
former rebels who helped oust him and several center-right, pro-business
aspirants.

''I want change for my country. We need development and opportunities,
so that's why I came out to vote,'' said Garry Alcy, 35, one of about 50
people voting at a high school in Petionville, a suburb of the capital
Port-au-Prince.

Under Haiti's constitution, the party or coalition with the most
parliamentary seats gets to choose the prime minister, who acts as head
of government and appoints Cabinet members and most administrative posts.

Preval's Lespwa party is likely to capture the largest number of seats,
but no party has enough candidates to win a majority, meaning Preval
will need to forge a coalition government. Final results are expected in
about a week.

''We're here to vote for parliament because they will vote on the laws
that will make our country better,'' said 26-year-old Patrick
Saint-Tume, clutching his voter ID card as he stood in line at an almost
empty voting station near Port-au-Prince's downtown.

Preval, a former president who shares Aristide's wide support among
Haiti's poor masses, had urged citizens to vote, but the 63-year-old did
little campaigning for candidates of Lespwa, which means ''hope'' in Creole.

A strong showing for Preval's party would boost his legislative agenda
to rebuild Haiti, which has been battered by gang violence, the closure
of many textile factories and high unemployment since the February 2004
uprising that forced out Aristide.

Preval, who was voting in his northern hometown of Marmalade, takes
power next month and has pledged to restore security and attract jobs.

Election officials urged voters to cast ballots but said a low turnout
wouldn't undermine the result.

''We will get a respectable percentage of voters to make this election
legitimate,'' said Jacques Bernard, director general of Haiti's
electoral council. He blamed the poor turnout on a tendency among
Haitians to vote in large numbers only in presidential elections.

''The mentality in Haiti is to only vote for president, but the election
for senators and deputies is important too,'' Bernard said on local radio.

Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, has not had a
functioning parliament since 2003, and observers said a huge amount of
work will be needed to get it up and running after it is installed.

''There's no staff. There's very little in the way of physical
facilities. This is basically starting from scratch,'' said Dan Erikson,
a Haiti expert with the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue.

Some 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers and 3,000 Haitian police were patrolling
the country to prevent violence. Officials have deemed 37 areas as high
security risks and will deploy rapid-response teams to put down any
disturbance, U.N. spokesman Damian Onses-Cardona said.

Only two candidates won seats in the Feb. 7 first round of elections,
which were hampered by late poll openings, delays in distributing
ballots and a shortage of election workers needed to handle the crush of
voters who jammed polling stations at dawn. Turnout was high because
presidential elections were also held that day.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Haiti-Elections.html

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