27418: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti to stop polling, shut schools to secure vote (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Haiti will stop campaigning
and close schools and government offices before next week's presidential
election, to help ensure security for the long-awaited poll, the country's
interim authorities said on Wednesday.
     Prime Minister Gerard Latortue also said polling would be stopped and
barred media from publishing any but "official" results, amid fears of
violence surrounding the Feb. 7 vote, Haiti's first since former president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted by a rebellion in February 2004.
     Schools will close on Friday and not reopen until the following
Friday, three days after the election, originally set for November, but
delayed repeatedly. Latortue said he realized many Haitians might remember
an election-day massacre in 1987, when voters were cut down at a school in
the capital.
     He assured voters that Haitian police and 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers were
ready to protect them.
     "The government, with the support of U.N. troops, with the help of
Haitian police, will take all the necessary measures to make sure people
can go and vote in a secure environment," Latortue, who was appointed after
Aristide's departure, said at a news conference.
     "We are going to prove that we can be firm with those who will seek to
stir violence during the election," he said.
     Latortue said public administration workers would be off the job from
Monday to Wednesday and campaigning would end on Sunday night. Pre-election
polling surveys will not be allowed after Saturday.
     Media were barred from publishing any results not deemed "official" by
the government.
     Hundreds of people have been killed in political and gang violence in
the two years since Aristide left the chaotic, impoverished Caribbean
nation of 8.5 million for exile. The capital, Port-au-Prince, has been
plagued recently by kidnappings for ransom.
     U.N. officials said rapid deployment forces would be ready to quell
any election-day problems.
     "The country is ready for elections and we are ready to provide
security," said Juan Gabriel Valdes, the U.N. envoy to Haiti.