ARTICLE - CHAOS CLOUDS VOTE

CHAOS CLOUDS HAITI VOTE
(Wall Street Journal) - By Ingrid Arnesen

Presidential Candidates Call for Suspending Election, Citing Fraud, Favoritism

PORT-AU-PRINCE—Haitians voted in presidential elections on Sunday, hoping new leadership can help the country recover from January's earthquake and a raging cholera epidemic. But even before the vote ended, the contest was marred by chaos, sporadic violence and calls of fraud by leading candidates.

Twelve of the 18 presidential candidates, including two of the leading contenders, publicly called for the election to be suspended, accusing the government of outgoing President René Préval of favoring Jude Celestin, his protégé and the candidate for the governing Inite Party.

Twelve out of Haiti's eighteen presidential candidates say the vote should be canceled because of massive fraud.

"We denounce in front of the Haitian, and the international community, the massive fraud that is being committed throughout the country," one of the candidates, Josette Bijoux, told a midday news conference. Ms. Bijoux waved a 15-page document she said contained proof of vote rigging and intimidation.

The country's main election authority, the Provisional Electoral Council, said the voting would go on, and extended polling hours until 6 p.m. local time.

A supporter of exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide held calendars with his likeness near a polling station in Port-au-Prince Sunday.

There was no immediate reaction to the allegations from Mr. Celestin, a party bureaucrat who rose to prominence running the state construction company during the aftermath of the earthquake, which killed hundreds of thousands and leveled large parts of the capital and surrounding cities.

If election officials validate the vote, then the top two finishers are likely to face a runoff vote in January. The eventual winner of the vote will face a daunting task of rebuilding a nation of 10 million that is still hobbled from the quake. Much of the pledged $11 billion in foreign aid following the quake has yet to arrive.

Adding to the woes, a cholera epidemic is racing throughout the country, the hemisphere's poorest nation. More than 1,300 people have died from the disease, which is expected to get worse, said health experts.

Scenes of confusion and anger reigned at many polling stations, where frustrated voters complained about outdated polling lists and intimidation from supporters of rival candidates.

Local radio said that even Mr. Celestin, the standard bearer for the governing party, didn't find his name on the voter list when he went to cast his ballot.

Demonstrators ran through the streets of Port-au-Prince on Sunday, as Haiti's presidential election was marred by sporadicviolence and calls of fraud.

Two truckloads of men identifying themselves as election observers stormed a voting center in Tabarre, a suburb of the capital, said eyewitnesses. After looking up their own names and not finding them on the lists, the men tore up the ballots, and took several computers and other equipment before fleeing, witnesses said. Two Haitian police on the scene did nothing to stop the men.

"I lost my vote," cried Jacynthe Lebrun, a 38-year-old secretary. Several dozen Haitian police and United Nations policemen arrived an hour later.

One international observer said he saw Haitian police at one polling station in Carrefour, a suburb of the capital, prevent anyone from entering to vote unless they were members of the Inite Party. The observer didn't want his name published until his organization's report was finished after the election.

Two of the candidates, rap star turned candidate Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly and industrialist Charles Henry Baker, vowed to walk through the rubble-strewn streets of the capital to the central election authority and demand the vote be scrapped.

Although turnout was heavy in the morning, the city streets became increasingly deserted as reports circulated about fraud and violence.

Amid political tension and a cholera epidemic, Haitians head to the polls to choose a new president, parliament and senators.

Mr. Préval is prevented from running again because of term limits. Many in the country blame him for the chaotic aftermath of the quake, when he was rarely seen.

Given how little has been accomplished since the earthquake, many Haitians arrived at the polls with a general sense of mistrust and frustration, and a yearning for meaningful change.

"I'm voting because I want change, and change now. Everyone wants Préval to go, and his party, too," said Clerveau Serge Jr., a 27-year-old plumber, as he stood in line outside a local school called the Ecole Nationale Isidore Boisrond.

Given that the country is still crippled from the quake, organizing a national election has been a challenge. Many of the residents who lost their homes to the temblor also lost their voter-identification cards and have yet to receive replacements, adding to a sense of frustration and disenfranchisement.

At the sprawling Aviation Camp in the capital, where 52,000 displaced earthquake victims have endured 10 months of squalid conditions, few of the people have their ID cards. Tensions ran high early Sunday, with about 50 heavily armed United Nations riot police facing a crowd of camp residents at the entrance. A water cannon was parked inside.

"The gangs are all down there," said an Argentinian policeman. "We're here to make sure they don't start trouble. This is one of the hot camps."

Inside the camp, which will has one polling station capable of handling a few hundred voters, residents expressed anger that many would be unable to vote. "We asked for the mandate from the [government] to allow us to vote here, but we never received it," said Frantz Mozart, a well-dressed young man who stood out among the ragged group.

Like many here, Mr. Mozart was anxious for change. Look how we're living," he said, pointing to the squalid camp. "In a gigantic garbage dump. Vermin everywhere."

Although polling is sporadic and contradictory, some of the early favorites include Ms. Manigat and Mr. Celestine.

Ms. Manigat had leveled charges of fraud before the vote, saying there were half a million illegal ballots in circulation.

"I am aware that there are 500,000 illegal ballots already in stock for distribution, and as of last week there were 500 additional voting booths throughout the country that are not registered," she told supporters.

She also claimed that many of the 11,000 booth supervisors had been replaced by sympathizers of her opponent, Mr. Celestin.

Even before the vote, fears of violence ran high, particularly after gunfire cut short Mr. Martelly's final campaign event in the southern city of Les Cayes on Friday. It was unclear if anyone was hurt in the shootings.

Election officials struggled to get voters their ID cards in the hours leading up to the vote. On Saturday, hundreds of Haitians clung to the gates and walls of the Petionville city hall near the capital, hoping to get an ID card.

"It's misery," said Alex St. Cyr, a 26-year-old mason who had been waiting for five days to pick up his ailing boss's ID card. "Everybody needs to vote because this is the occasion for change."

At Haiti's only official relocation camp for earthquake victims, called Camp Corail, there is only one voting booth for a camp with some 12,000 earthquake victims. A supervisor at the booth, Abner Regius, said on Saturday it has capacity for only 483 voters. But he added that the list for the 483 voters was in another town.

The rest of the camp residents were being asked to return to their old neighborhoods to vote. But Fonrose Fedresse, one of the camp residents, said there is no transportation.

At Croix-des-Bouquets, north of the capital, about 100 citizens waited fruitlessly outside the regional voting center to get their ID cards.

"There were hundreds of us this morning; many were turned away. We've been here every day," said Jainvil Petersen, an accounting student who lost his ID in the earthquake.

Just then, a woman came out screaming, "They told me they to come back on Wednesday!" She was drowned out by an election official who addressed the angry crowd from behind a gate shouting through a bullhorn, "We are closing, you have to come back on Tuesday."

Inside, election official Emile Consalable seemed at wits' end. "The situation is very complicated. We're a small country. We've had so many problems. People say it's fraud; others say it's the system that's corrupt. I think everyone is stretched."