27511: Craig (news) Haitians line up to vote (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig


Haitians line up to vote

Tuesday, February 7, 2006; Posted: 7:26 a.m. EST (12:26 GMT)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Haitians formed long lines outside polling 
stations Tuesday amid heavy security to vote in Haiti's first presidential 
election in nearly six years, a vote authorities called a key step toward 
steering this bloodied, impoverished nation away from total collapse.

Clutching newly minted voter ID cards, about 1,000 people lined up before dawn 
at a polling station in the Port-au-Prince area of Delmas, waiting for 
electoral officials to open the doors. Hundreds of people waited along rutted, 
trash-strewn streets in the downtown slum of Bel-Air, some pushing and shoving 
to keep their place in line.

Polls were scheduled to open at 6 a.m. EST, but several voting stations in the 
capital had yet to open by then.

"Haitians are mobilized for change, that's why there's so many people in the 
street this morning," said Jean Joseph, 44, on his way to vote.

Helicopters, trucks and even mules ferried election supplies into remote 
corners of the Caribbean nation on Monday. U.N. officials said that 92 percent 
of the 3.5 million people who registered to vote had collected their identity 
cards, a sign that turnout could be high.

"Haiti's future depends on this vote," said Jacques Bernard, director general 
of the electoral council. "Good elections are the only solution to saving our 
nation."

Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, 
told The Associated Press late Monday he expected a strong participation.

"We have seen ... a lot of enthusiasm to vote," he said in Port-au-Prince, the 
capital of this nation of 8 million people.

The front-runner is former president Rene Preval, a 63-year-old agronomist who 
led the country from 1996-2001. Other top contenders among the 33 candidates 
are businessman Charles Henry Baker and Leslie Manigat, who was president for 
five months in 1988 until a coup ousted him.

If no candidate wins a majority, a March 19 runoff would be held between the 
top two candidates. Hundreds of candidates are also running for 129 
parliamentary seats.

In the downtown slum of Bel-Air, walls and shops once adorn with images of 
Aristide are now plastered in a sea of yellow posters bearing Preval's face.

Aristide, once backed by the United States and seen as a beacon of hope in this 
desperate country, was driven from power after being accused of corruption and 
of using thugs to attack his opponents. He lives in exile in South Africa, 
while an interim government has led the country for the last two years.

However he still enjoys wide support, and many Haitians believe that if Preval 
wins, he will bring Aristide back.

James Jeudi, a 21-year-old unemployed laborer, said Monday he'd still like the 
ousted leader to return, but called voting for Preval the next best 
alternative.

"We loved Aristide, but Aristide is there in exile, and we are here. We have to 
carry on," Jeudi said. "Preval knows the suffering of the poor, and that is why 
we're going to vote for him."

Bernard defended a decision not to put voting stations inside the sprawling, 
seaside slum of Cite Soleil, a base for armed gangs loyal to Aristide who are 
blamed for a wave of kidnappings in the capital. Residents of Cite Soleil 
accused officials of trying to disenfranchise them, but officials say they can 
vote at polling stations outside the slum.

"It's a moral question. I couldn't ask an election worker to go into an area 
that I myself wouldn't go," Bernard said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the 9,300-member U.N. peacekeeping force 
"will do all it can to support the Haitian authorities in ensuring that the 
vote is held in freedom and safety."

Underscoring the difficulty of holding elections in a country with a ruined 
infrastructure -- including roads -- mules transported some election materials 
to areas where U.N. helicopters were unable to land. The vote has been 
postponed four times since October because of security problems and trouble 
distributing elections materials.

The election has been billed as a move to restore democracy, but it is a 
daunting task. With decades of brain drain, capital flight and crippling 
judicial, security, health and corruption problems, the Western hemisphere's 
poorest nation needs more than a quick electoral fix, experts say.

The 70-mile drive from Port-au-Prince to the northern town of Gonaives takes 
four hours, and the roads are far from Haiti's worst.

Deforestation is widespread, leaving topsoil vulnerable, and when hurricanes 
hit, catastrophic floods often to follow. Land plots grow smaller as the 
population increases, and poor farming methods exhaust an already-tired soil.

Haiti has long suffered from oppression and instability. The country was ruled 
for nearly 30 years by dictators Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son 
Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who fled to France in 1986 amid allegations of 
human rights violations, mass killings and stealing millions from the national 
treasury.

Efforts to restore democracy since then have faltered. Soldiers aborted Haiti's 
first attempt at free elections in a bloodbath in 1987. Aristide, then a priest 
who preached rebellion to slum-dwelling Haitians, won elections in 1990 but 
served only seven months before the military overthrew him. Aristide was 
re-elected in 2000.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not 
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/02/07/haiti.elections.ap/index.html