27790: Craig (news) CNN: Haiti calls for election review (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig


Haiti calls for election review

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNN) -- Amid widespread protests in support of 
presidential hopeful Rene Preval, Haiti's interim government has called for a 
review of election results to investigate accusations of voting fraud and 
irregularities.

The review was ordered just hours after Preval announced he would not accept 
the election results, saying the counting process was seriously flawed.

Preval, a former president who was an ally of ousted former President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, appeared headed for a run-off after officials said 
Monday that he had 48 percent of the vote with 90 percent of the ballots 
counted.

That was just shy of the 50 percent he needed to win outright.

The U.N. Security Council Tuesday urged for calm while the remaining ballots 
are counted.

"Members of the Council ... strongly urge all parties to respect the results of 
the election and refrain from violence," said Josh Bolton, the U.S. ambassador 
to the United Nations, who is serving as this month's Security Council 
president.

Thousands of pro-Preval protesters have demonstrated across the country in 
recent days, the most intense of which left one person dead on Monday.

Preval -- who led Haiti from 1996 to 2001 and is the only Haitian president to 
serve a complete term since the country's founding in 1803 -- urged his 
supporters Tuesday to continue to demonstrate, but to do so peacefully.

Haitians voted last Tuesday for their first new leader since Aristide was 
ousted two years ago.

A runoff is to be held on March 19 if Preval doesn't garner more than 50 
percent of the vote, and the new president is to be sworn in by March 29.

/Journalist Amy Bracken contributed to this report./


Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/02/14/haiti/index.html