6072: Haiti Opp rejects offer for dialogue (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: nozier@tradewind.net

Haiti Opp rejects offer for dialogue 
THE TIMES OF INDIA NOVEMBER 30 2000
                                                                
PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haitian Opposition Tuesday rejected an offer of dialogue
from president-elect Jean Bertrand Aristide until the results of May's
contested legislative elections are overturned.Former president Aristide
claimed victory Monday amid controversy over voter turnout and violence
surrounding the election.Former president Leslie Manigat said "this is
not the first time they have tried to trap the opposition" with offers
of a dialogue. Denouncing the "exclusive and monopolist practices"
of the ruling Lavalas Family party and "the absence of competition,
negation of pluralism, which is to say,democracy," Manigat said that
Sunday's election was "in the end, a myth."He said the way to a dialogue
was through overturning the results of the controversial May 21
legislative elections.Some 15 opposition groups, united in an alliance
 known as the Democratic Convergence, boycotted  Sunday's elections,
charging that the ballot-counting system used in elections in May and
July was inadequate. Despite international observers' concerns over
voting irregularities at the time, neither Haiti's Provisional
Electoral Council nor Aristide's party was willing to review the results
of the polls, which gave Lavalas domination of the legislature.
 As a result, the international community refused to send observers to
monitor Sunday's vote. The  exceptions were a four-member mission from
the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) and some 30
observers from a US non-governmental organisation, Global Exchange.
The official Electoral Council said more than 60 per cent of eligible
voters exercised their franchise  Sunday. But the Opposition said most
people heeded their call for a boycott and the turnout hovered around
only five per cent. (AFP)