28375: (news) Chamberlain: New Haiti leader seen able to control legislature (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, April 26 (Reuters) - President-elect Rene
Preval's Lespwa movement fell short of the majority it needs to choose the
next prime minister and Cabinet, winning just 11 of 27 Senate seats and 20
of 85 seats in the lower house a runoff legislative election.
     Preval, who won the presidency after the first round of voting in the
chaotic Caribbean nation on Feb. 7, may still be able to  govern
effectively by reaching out to several rival parties.
     All the votes in last Friday's legislative election have been counted,
except from disputed areas where ballots were declared invalid due to
violence and other irregularities.
     Preval, who served as president from 1996 to 2001, will be sworn in on
May 14.
     The Feb. 7 election was the first in Haiti since Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was forced out in February 2004 by a violent revolt and pressure
from foreign governments.
     "President Preval's administration can count upon our support in
parliament," said Evans Paul, whose Democratic Alliance party won one
Senate seat and 11 in the lower house or Chamber of Deputies. "We can't
demand that he share his victory with us. He is the one who won."
     Micha Gaillard, a spokesman for the Fusion Social and Democratic
party, which won three Senate seats and 12 house seats, said: "We are going
to support the government of President Preval. There will be no
obstructionism."
     Together with its allies, Preval's party looks likely to have the
16-seat majority needed to control the Senate. But he will have to reach
out to rivals to obtain the 50-seat majority needed to control the lower
house.
     "We have no interest in putting up opposition to President Preval. He
has shown openness and all the conditions for governability are being met,"
said Paul Denis, leader of the OPL party, one of those that could help
Preval achieve the majority it needs.
     "We want the success of the Preval administration. We will contribute
to it," said Denis.
     Seventeen legislative seats, including three in the Senate, are still
up for grabs but they will be decided in another round of balloting in
jurisdictions where the runoff vote was canceled because of violence or
other problems.
     A date for the new round has not been set.