28356: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Elections (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 24 (AP) -- At least a million Haitians voted in an
election runoff to choose a new parliament, double the initial estimate
given by some international observers, U.N. officials said Monday.
   An official count showed at least 30 percent of Haiti's 3.5 million
registered voters participated in Friday's election, said David Wimhurst, a
spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission, citing data from Haiti's
Provisional Electoral Council.
   Final results are expected as early as Tuesday.
   Wimhurst said the participation figure represented a "a big step
forward" compared to past legislative races in Haiti, despite a claim by a
European Union observer team that turnout was poor.
   "The fact that we got 30 percent, or 1 million voters, is not
negligible," he said.
   Many voters in this impoverished Caribbean nation were slow to turn up
at polling stations in the early hours of balloting, prompting the head EU
election observer, Johan Van Hecke, to call the turnout "extremely weak."
He estimated the participation at no more than 15 percent.
   Speaking to reporters Monday, Van Hecke said that estimate was based on
"preliminary information" but stood by his assessment that participation
was low.
   Election observers had reported isolated cases of people voting multiple
times. Haitians voted for 127 legislative representatives, including 97
deputies and 30 senators.
   The vote was seen as a test of legislative support for President-elect
Rene Preval, who won the Feb. 7 presidential elections, called two years
after a revolt helped topple President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the
poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
   Preval, who formally takes power May 14, will have to form a coalition
government because neither his Lespwa party or his rivals have enough
candidates to win a majority.