News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinewar-on-terrorhaiti2006-elections — Viewing Item


Leading haitain candidate results slipping during count

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2006/02/13/ap2521117.html

http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2006/02/13/ap2521117.html

Associated Press
Update 8: Preval Slipping in Haiti Vote Count
By STEVENSON JACOBS , 02.13.2006, 09:22 AM

Supporters of presidential front-runner Rene Preval mounted roadblocks Monday to demand their candidate be declared the winner of Haiti's elections as results showed the former president slipping further below the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.

With about 90 percent of the vote counted, Preval, who enjoys wide support from Haiti's poor, was leading with 48.7 percent of the vote, Haiti's electoral council said on its Web site. His nearest opponent was Leslie Manigat, another former president, who had 11.8 percent.

Demonstrators supporting Preval erected roadblocks in several parts of Port-au-Prince, including busy areas such as Delmas and Canape Vert, said David Wimhurst, a U.N. spokesman.

"There's a lot of security alerts all over town. Our staff are being told to stay home because they can't get to work," Wimhurst said.

Accusations of ballot mishandling and street protests erupted nearly a week after Haitians voted to restore democratic government to this impoverished Caribbean nation. Some demonstrators threatened violence if Preval isn't declared the winner, chanting: "No Preval, no peace!"

Two members of Haiti's electoral council on Sunday questioned vote counting procedures, while throngs of supporters of leading presidential candidate Rene Preval poured into the streets, chanting angry allegations of fraud.

Electoral council member Pierre Richard Duchemin said he was being denied his rightful access to information about the tabulation process and called for an investigation.

"According to me, there's a certain level of manipulation," Duchemin told The Associated Press, adding that "there is an effort to stop people from asking questions."

Preval supporters blew horns and pounded drums outside electoral council headquarters, denouncing Jacques Bernard, director-general of the nine-member electoral council, as a "thief."

"He doesn't know how to count!" they chanted, as they were blocked from the headquarters by police carrying rifles and shotguns.

Bernard has denied accusations that the council voided many votes for Preval. Blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers deployed across the capital and blocked chanting Preval supporters from reaching the Montana Hotel, where the electoral council abruptly canceled a Sunday evening press conference.

Patrick Fequiere, who is also on the nine-member electoral council, said on local radio that Bernard was releasing results without notifying other council members, who did not know where Bernard was obtaining his information.

The elections will replace an interim government installed after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a bloody rebellion two years ago.

The vote was seen as crucial to avoiding a political and economic meltdown in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation where, following Aristide's ouster, gangs went on a kidnapping spree and many factories closed because of a lack of security and foreign investment.

Jean-Henoc Faroul, president of an electoral district with 400,000 voters northeast of the capital, accused the electoral commission of trying to force a runoff, saying ballot tally sheets from Preval strongholds have vanished.

"The electoral council is trying to do what it can to diminish the percentage of Preval so it goes to a second round," said Faroul, who openly supports Preval's candidacy.

U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said tally sheets with vote results have been found dumped in the garbage, but added that the sheets might have been mishandled by election workers and it was not necessarily evidence of fraud.

He said 136 tally sheets containing the results of possibly thousands of votes had still not been processed at a voter tabulation site in Port-au-Prince. Others were being delivered piecemeal from districts, he said.

Doors were removed from the tabulation center to prevent electoral council lawyers huddling in private, Wimhurst said.

Of 2.2 million ballots cast, about 125,000 ballots have been declared invalid because of irregularities, raising suspicion among Preval supporters that polling officials are trying to steal the election. Another 4 percent of the ballots were blank but were still added into the total, making it harder for Preval to obtain the 50 percent plus one vote needed.

__

Associated Press Writer Andrew Selsky contributed to this report.



Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed


Death of UN leader in haiti amid instability
Election official flees haiti after election { February 21 2006 }
Election officials tampering with haitian vote
Haiti electiion ballots discovered in dump { February 16 2006 }
Leading haitain candidate results slipping during count
New UN military chief in haiti vows stabilization
No voting stationsfor haitis largest slum
Polling stations stayed closed in haiti { February 8 2006 }
Preval wins election after blank ballots discovered { February 17 2006 }

Files Listed: 9



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple