A member of Haiti's electoral council said results of the
presidential elections were being manipulated, echoing complaints
by throngs of supporters of Rene Preval, who poured into the
streets on Sunday with angry allegations of fraud.
With 75 percent of votes counted, Preval was falling short of
winning Tuesday's elections outright by less than a percentage
point.
"According to me, there's a certain level of manipulation,"
Pierre Richard Duchemin, an electoral council member, told The
Associated Press, adding that "there is an effort to stop people
from asking questions" about the counting process.
Duchemin said Sunday he needed access to tallies of vote counts
in hopes of learning who was behind the alleged manipulation. He
called for an investigation.
Preval's supporters poured out of different neighborhoods of the
capital and converged on the electoral council headquarters.
Blowing horns and pounding drums, they denounced Jacques Bernard,
director-general of the nine-member electoral council.
"Jacques Bernard is a thief. He doesn't know how to count!" they
chanted. UN peacekeepers blocked Preval supporters from reaching
the Montana Hotel, where election officials have been giving
updates on the results.
"When you get thousands of people on the streets, things can get
unpredictable," said UN spokesman David Wimhurst.
Bernard denied accusations the council voided many votes for
Preval, a former president.
Suspicion has risen among many Haitians that the results were
being manipulated in the five days since voters turned out in
droves to elect a new government. It will replace an interim
government installed after then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
was ousted in a bloody rebellion two years ago.
Jean-Henoc Faroul, the president of an electoral district with
400,000 voters northeast of the capital, accused the electoral
commission of trying to force a runoff, saying 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," Faroul told
The Associated Press. Faroul said he wanted Preval to win but added
that he would be protesting if any candidate was being denied votes
by manipulation.
"I am not only the president of an electoral board, but I also
vote," Faroul said. "And I want my vote and the votes of all the
people to be respected."
Preval demonstrators threatened violence if Preval is not
declared the first-round winner. As demonstrators marched on the
Montana Hotel, the electoral council abruptly canceled a Sunday
evening news conference.
"If they take the election from Preval, it's not going to go
smoothly," said Robert Antoine, a 23-year-old from the Bel-Air
slum. "The people voted massively for Preval, and it seems the
electoral commission is playing games with the results."
Duchemin accused Bernard of "megalomania," saying he had blocked
other council members from getting information on the tabulation
process.
"What we're talking about now is a magician that is sitting down
and saying 'I am the only one doing something ... everything I'm
doing is perfect,'" Duchemin said. "We're playing with the future
of this country and this is something we can't afford."
Preval was leading 33 candidates with 49.1 percent of the vote,
short of the 50 percent plus one vote he needs to avoid a March 19
runoff with the runner-up. Leslie Manigat, also a former president,
was second with 11.7 percent of the vote.
South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, presiding over
services at Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, urged Haitians to
be patient.
"They've started well, let them finish the race well," Tutu, the
retired Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, told the
AP. "And I think they will, that they will be peaceful and that
they will accept the results of the elections."
An estimated 2.2 million people cast ballots, or 63 percent of
registered voters.
About 125,000 ballots — or 7.5 percent of the votes cast — 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 Preval to obtain the
50 percent plus one vote needed.
(Chinadaily.com via agencies February 13, 2006)
