ARTICLE - U.S. SHIFTS STANCE, OPEN TO NEW VOTE

U.S. SHIFTS STANCE, OPEN TO NEW HAITI VOTE
(Miami Herald) - By Lesley Clark and Jacqueline Charles

As the United States awaits the findings of a review of vote tallies from the disputed Haitian election, leaders say they might consider supporting a new vote.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Friday it might be able to support tossing out the results of Haiti's disputed presidential election if that is the course called for in a soon-to-be released international review.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, said the agency is awaiting the findings from a team of election experts convened by the Organization of American States to examine vote tallies.

Should the panel call for canceling the elections and scheduling a do-over, Mills said ``we obviously would be interested to understand how they came to those conclusions, would want to review whether or not those conclusions . . . we thought we, too, could support.

``All those are things we would be prepared to entertain, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what we would do, obviously, because until we know what they concluded and how they concluded it, we're not in the best position to be able to do that,'' she said.

Twelve of the 19 candidates on the Nov. 28 presidential ballot have pressed for the elections to be canceled, citing ``massive fraud.'' At issue is whether current President René Préval's choice, Jude Célestin, garnered enough votes to defeat musician Michel ``Sweet Micky'' Martelly and advance to a runoff against former first lady Mirlande Manigat.

Preliminary tallies showed Célestin beating Martelly by several thousands votes.

The resulting furor over the election has hampered efforts to fight cholera, sparked tension among a population preparing to commemorate the first anniversary of the earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000 and overshadowed reconstruction.

For days, unconfirmed rumors have circulated about the findings in the final report, which is expected to be delivered to Préval either over the weekend or next week.

Mills' remarks are a shift for the U.S., which previously has expressed a preference for Préval to pass the presidential sash over to an elected government.

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten told The Miami Herald last month that the U.S. didn't favor a transitional government that would rule Haiti during a new electoral process.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Miami Herald last week that one of the best legacies of his and Préval's government would be handing over rule to an elected government, rather than a provisional one.

``We have to come out of the crisis with a result that is not putting too much at stake -- the stability that we have reached the last four years,'' Bellerive said.

After Haiti's electoral council announced last month that Célestin and Manigat garnered the most votes, presumably putting them in the runoff, Martelly's supporters spent three days setting the capital and major Haitian cities ablaze and destroying businesses.

The fear of violence continues to loom.

The decision on whether to accept the OAS results falls to Préval, who asked for the OAS review last month.

Mills' remarks, which came at a briefing scheduled on progress in Haiti, followed a White House meeting Thursday in which more than a dozen Haitian Americans cautioned Vice President Joe Biden against supporting the results of the disputed election.

``Forcing a runoff with the results of that election is not going to be advantageous to Haiti or the United States,'' said Jean-Robert Lafortune, chairman of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition. ``We would spend five more years in political turmoil.''

Mills declined to say whether the U.S. would support Préval remaining in office beyond his term.

Under an agreement with the Haitian Senate, Préval could remain in office until May 14 if no president has been elected.

Haiti's constitution calls for a new president to assume office every five years on Feb. 7 but it also allows an elected president to serve out a five-year mandate. For Préval, five years would end on May 14.

The OAS review, said Mills, ``will actually help shape whether or not there can be and on what timeline there would be a transitional government.''

Daniel Supplice, a political advisor to Martelly, said Friday that ``if everyone agrees that the fraud is so massive that the elections should be re-done, then we would support it.''

Manigat, in an interview on local Haitian radio, said she would only favor a transitional government to finish the election cycle already started. She does not support a do-over, as other candidates have suggested.

Célestin said he would ``respect the legal process and whatever [legal authorities] say must happen.''