#5360: Haiti considers postponing presidential vote (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JRAuguste1@aol.com

Haiti considers postponing presidential vote

By Trenton Daniel

  
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Haiti's government has indicated it might 
postpone a presidential election set for Nov. 26 which the opposition, upset 
over tainted parliamentary polls earlier this year, has threatened to 
boycott. 

"The government is ready to agree with any accord if it agrees with the 
Haitian constitution and law," Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis said on 
Thursday night after meeting with a delegation from the Organisation of 
American States (OAS). 

"But no matter what, we must have a new president by Feb. 7." If there's a 
political agreement, the government will work with the CEP (Provisional 
Electoral Council) to schedule a new date for the presidential elections." 

The election is scheduled for Nov. 26, with a runoff set for Dec. 17, and 
Haiti's constitution mandates that a transfer of power take place on Feb. 7. 

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president, 
registered for the presidency last week and is virtually guaranteed to win. 

Aristide, ousted by a military coup seven months after taking office, was 
reinstated by a U.S.-led invasion in 1994, and was constitutionally barred 
from running for two consecutive terms. His protege Rene Preval has led the 
Caribbean nation of 8 million people since 1996. 

An OAS delegation came to Haiti a week ago to reach a solution over the 
parliamentary elections in May and June. The international community contends 
10 senate seats should have been forced to a runoff after no candidate won an 
absolute majority. 

The OAS brought together Aristide's majority party Lavalas Family and the 
opposition coalition Group de Convergence in the first face-to-face dialogue 
since the vote. 

Convergence has called for results from the parliamentary elections -- a 
landslide for Lavalas -- to be reexamined and the organisation of a new CEP 
to oversee the presidential vote. 

"We have some problems before that," Ariel Henry, a member of Group de 
Convergence, told Reuters after the OAS meeting. "It's obvious that Nov. 26 
elections will not work." 

The devolvement came amid a background of unrest in Haiti, the poorest nation 
in the Americas and with a history of dictatorship and military rule. 

Eight high-ranking police officers were arrested this week in what officials 
called an alleged coup plot. Six were detained by the Dominican military at 
Haiti's request after fleeing to the neighbouring Dominican Republic and two 
officers were arrested on Wednesday in the capital, Port-au-Prince. 

Neither Alexis nor Preval provided details on what the alleged plot involved 
and there were no reports of violence against government officials or 
buildings. 

Haiti's civilian police force was created after its army was disbanded in 
1991 for its role in the military coup that ousted Aristide, a former Roman 
Catholic priest with a popular agenda for more social justice. 

13:13 10-20-00

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