[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
5980: CBC News FWD: Aristide expected to win Haiti's presidency (fwd)
From: Racine125@aol.com
Aristide expected to win Haiti's presidency
WebPosted Sun Nov 26 15:33:58 2000
PORT-AU-PRINCE - People in Haiti are voting in presidential elections marred
by opposition boycotts, low voter turnout and a rash of bombings.
Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who stepped down in 1996
because the country's constitution does not allow consecutive terms in
office, is expected to return to power.
The main opposition parties are boycotting the vote. They claim the elections
have been rigged to favour Aristide's candidates.
Aristide is running against six unknowns who, fearful of attacks, have not
campaigned.
A bomb blast at a polling station in the capital, Port-au-Prince, Sunday
morning wounded one person. Last week, nine pipe bombs exploded in the city,
killing two children
Aristide has blamed the bombings on opponents trying to "block the
elections." Opposition leaders have claimed the government of President Rene
Preval, Aristide's hand-picked successor, orchestrated the violence to dampen
voter turnout.
Aristide is promising to create half a million jobs in the poorest country in
the Western hemisphere.
He became president when he won 1990 elections in a landslide to become
Haiti's first freely elected leader in nearly 200 years of military and
civilian dictatorship in the Caribbean country.
The army ousted Aristide in 1991 and he was restored three years later by
U.S. troops deployed to end military killings of civilians and stem a flood
of Haitians heading to Florida.