Monday, April 24, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): Balloting was light but tempers ran high in Haiti's parliamentary runoff Friday, as a man was killed in a fight between partisans, officials said.

Polls closed at 2000 GMT, after only 15 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.

Prime Minister Gerard Latortue earlier urged Haitians to cast ballots for the sake of Haiti's next government.

"I invite Haitians to go to the polls and vote," he said.

"This vote allows president-elect Rene Preval to choose a prime minister and to form a government," Latortue said as he cast his own ballot surrounded by his security detail.

Election officials said 3.5 million voters had been called to cast ballots for 30 Senate candidates and 97 hopefuls for the Chamber of Deputies in the second round of voting.

"We have found that the rate of voter participation has been very low so far, not more than 15 percent," EU observer Johan Van Hecke told AFP.

A man was killed in Grande-Saline, in the north of Haiti, according to a local journalist contacted by AFP, causing local authorities to call off voting in that area.

Unconfirmed reports said that as many as three persons had been killed with stones and machetes.

"The bodies of the presumed victims have not been found," said a blue-helmeted UN soldier, speaking under condition of anonymity.

A total of 1,300 candidates stood for Parliament on February 7. Only two candidates garnered enough votes to avoid Friday's runoff.

Sixty percent of eligible Haitians cast ballots in the first round, which saw Preval elected president. He is to be inaugurated on May 14.

Preval, 63, Haiti's president from 1996 to 2001, was declared president February 15 following a reshuffling of blank ballots in a internationally brokered deal over fraud claims.

Candidates of his Hope party are well positioned, but were not expected to win outright control of Parliament.

The runoff previously had been scheduled for March 19, but was delayed due to technical and organizational problems.

Stanislas Kalinski, observer for the International Organization of Francophone countries, said poor participation is not for lack of organization. "Compared with the first round of presidential and legislative voting, today's is better organized.

"There are no mix-ups. The voter lists are posted. The organizers have learned their lessons," he said.

  Most popular articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed

  Printable version