a1992: Haitian leader sees election as early as November (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

    UNITED NATIONS, May 10 (Reuters) - Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide said on Friday he was working hard to build bridges to his
political foes and hoped to hold new parliamentary elections as early as
November.
     Aristide, who became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1991, was
elected to a second term in November 2000 but has been locked in a tense
political fight with opposition parties over tainted May 2000 parliamentary
elections.
     The opposition Democratic Convergence coalition refused to take part
in the 2000 presidential poll, charging that the parliamentary elections
were tallied to give Aristide's Lavalas Family party more seats than it was
due.
     Haiti, one of the world's poorest nations, has a long history of
coups, political unrest and violence, and the quarrel has prompted foreign
donors to hold up hundreds of millions of dollars in aid while waiting for
it to establish solid democratic credentials after decades of dictatorship.
     Aristide told a news conference at U.N. headquarters that his
administration was "moving toward elections."
     "Hopefully we may have elections by November, to renew two-thirds of
the senate and all the deputies," he said on the sidelines of a U.N. summit
on children.
     Should the political opposition prefer instead to hold the elections
during the first six months of 2003, however, "I will welcome that. I will
do my best to create the appropriate environment to have good elections,"
he said.
     If a vote were held in early 2003 rather than this November, it would
be to elect local officeholders as well as senators and deputies, Aristide
said.
     As he spoke, huge crowds of rival demonstrators protested outside the
U.N. compound, one group opposed to Aristide and the other supporting him.
     Aristide said he was working with the Organization of American States
"to build a bridge of dialogue between the government and the opposition."
     "We cannot have democracy with one political party. We need different
political parties, and I am committed to do my best to help build that
democracy where every single Haitian has to be respected and all political
parties have to be respected," he said.