27525: Craig (news) In Haiti, 'the least imperfect elections' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig


In Haiti, 'the least imperfect elections'


They've been promised a free, fair vote, but uncertainty and fear
of violence linger

MARINA JIMÉNEZ

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- A long line of frustrated Haitians waited for hours in the 
heat yesterday -- uncertain where or even if they would be able to vote. 
Without registration cards, they can't take part in choosing a president in 
today's long-overdue elections -- the first since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was 
ousted in a bloody rebellion two years ago.

"I applied a long time ago, but I still don't have my voter registration card. 
This is my third time coming here," said Mona Jean Louis, 29, as she and 
hundreds of others waited outside the Provisional Electoral Council's 
headquarters on a dusty, traffic-clogged street in the city. "I have a baby at 
home, and I cannot wait all day."

Despite assurances that the election will be free, fair and secure, there is 
fear of chaos and even violence today. More than 10 per cent of the 3.5 million 
Haitians who registered to vote might not be issued their cards in time; many 
voters do not know where to vote, while others must walk up to eight kilomtres 
to one of 807 voting centres located across the mountainous country.

Haiti's electoral council rejects the idea that fraud could taint results, and 
says that some Haitians were late in picking up their voter cards. The election 
will be the best-run in Haiti's history and will help restore the state's 
legitimacy, laying the foundation for a return of foreign investment and aid, 
according to the council.

"Haiti's destiny is in your hands. All precautions for integrity and 
reliability have been taken," said Jacques Bernard, the council's director. 
"Good elections are the only solution to saving our nation."

More than 10,000 United Nations soldiers, as well as 5,000 Haitian police, have 
been dispatched to the countryside and around the capital, which has been 
besieged by a rash of kidnappings. An interim government has ruled since Mr. 
Aristide went into exile on Feb. 29, 2004, after former soldiers and armed 
thugs led an uprising and demanded his resignation, amidst accusations that the 
former Roman Catholic priest had armed the gangs in the slums. Mr. Aristide's 
second term in government was also undermined by allegations of irregularities 
in the 2000 Senate election.

René Préval, a 63-year-old agronomist and former protégé of the exiled Mr. 
Aristide, is the presidential front-runner, with the most recent Gallup poll 
showing he has 37 per cent of support. As Haiti's president from 1996-2001, 
between Mr. Aristide's two terms, he was the only elected leader to serve his 
full term and hand over office peacefully.

His closest rival is Charles Baker, a 50-year-old, wealthy industrialist from 
the elite.

If no candidate receives 50 per cent plus one of the votes, a run-off will be 
held March 19 between the two leading candidates.

"These will be the least imperfect elections Haiti could think about having," 
said Mark Schneider, with the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based 
non-governmental organization. "Given the problems in Haiti as a failed state, 
holding elections is the right thing to do to avoid further violence."

Haitians remember all too well the disastrous November, 1987, election when 
thugs with guns and machetes killed 34 voters at a school in the capital. 
Still, after weeks of gun battles inside squalid, densely populated slums here, 
the streets were quiet yesterday.

Initially slated for October, 2005, the election, which has cost $73-million 
(U.S.) to organize, has been delayed four times in four months. Officials with 
the United Nations and the Organization of American States have overseen 
planning, with ballots supplied by the Dominican Republic, ballot boxes from 
Mexico, and voting booths, pens and indelible ink from Canada. More than 280 
mules helped carry election materials to remote rural areas and will transport 
ballot boxes to central electoral stations after polls close today.

Officials expect to announce results within three days.

Nearly 300 international observers -- including 160 Canadians -- are monitoring 
the election. This is the first time in Haitian history that voters have been 
issued national identity documents -- laminated voter cards, with a photograph 
and fingerprints.

In a country in which half of the adults are illiterate, candidates have relied 
heavily on radio jingles to campaign. Posters decorate the corrugated fences of 
the main cities, and election graffiti are scrawled on the walls of slums. 
Yesterday, dozens of students stood near a fence outside the elegant 
whitewashed Presidential Palace, studying posters of the presidential 
contenders.

Many poor voters in shantytowns such as Cité Soleil and Bel Air are supporting 
Mr. Préval.

"A vote for Préval is a vote for Aristide," said Jean Oudey Neuma, a 
44-year-old shoe repairman in Bel Air. "Aristide is the one who helped us and 
gave us everything. And Mr. Préval will bring him back."

Mr. Préval has said Mr. Aristide is welcome to return, although his presence in 
the country is certain to have a destabilizing effect.

Mr. Préval's campaign symbol is three leaves, and his slogan refers to the 
creole saying that with three leaves or roots, all problems can be solved.

Mr. Baker's symbol is a colourfully decorated Haitian bus with the creole 
slogan "There is room for everybody." He has used his official candidacy 
number, 44, in campaign songs, taking advantage of the fact that in Haiti 
four-by-fours, which are needed to traverse the potholed roads, are a symbol of 
power. Mr. Baker has also distributed packets of M&Ms with the number 44 on 
them.

Among the others running for president are Guy Philippe, a 37-year-old former 
police chief who led the anti-Aristide rebellion; Leslie Manigat, a 75-year-old 
ex-president who spent two decades in exile; and Dany Toussaint, a chief of 
police under the Aristide government and suspected in the United States for 
drug trafficking and for the unsolved slaying of a journalist in 2000.

Haiti, the world's first independent black republic, is the poorest country in 
the Western Hemisphere, with 55 per cent of the 8.5 million inhabitants living 
on less than $2 a day.

The electoral process

Haitians go to the polls today to choose a president and a 129-member 
parliament, including the 30-member Senate and the 99-member Chamber of 
Deputies. This is how the electoral system works:

Under the two-round system, if candidates earn less than 50 per cent of the 
vote plus one, the two front-runners face each other in a runoff, to be held 
March 19.

The president is elected to a five-year term. Parliament stopped functioning in 
January of 2004 when it was dissolved. Since then the president has been ruling 
by decree.

Deputies are elected for four years in single-seat constituencies.

About 86 per cent of those eligible were registered to vote.

Senators are elected for six years.

Voters are marked with indelible ink to stop them from casting ballots twice.

Ballots include candidates' names, as well as photographs and symbols of the 
parties as almost half the population is illiterate.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060207.HAITI07/TPStory/?query=