Gunfire Kills 1 as Haitians Demand That Preval Be Declared President

Gunfire erupted and killed a man Monday as angry supporters of presidential front-runner Rene Preval took to the streets to protest delays and rumored fraud in ballot counting from the Feb. 7 elections.

Witnesses said the gunfire in the capital’s Tabarre neighborhood came from U.N. forces -- a charge denied by the peacekeepers’ spokesman.

Another mob stormed the luxury Hotel Montana in search of election officials the protesters accused of trying to deny a majority victory to Preval.

“We will burn the entire city unless they give us the results!” vowed Jean Civil, among the Preval backers who set up a roadblock of burning tires at the busy Canape Vert intersection. “They don’t want to give us the results because they are making them up.”

At protests throughout the capital, crowds chanted demands that Preval be declared the winner. They denounced an early-Monday update by the Provisional Electoral Council suggesting that the 63-year-old agronomist’s lead had slipped to 48.7% with about 90% of the vote counted. Preval must receive more than 50% of the 2.2 million votes cast to avoid a March 19 runoff against distant second-place contender Leslie Manigat.

Supporters of Preval and his exiled mentor, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, accuse political rivals of plotting with allies on the electoral council to deprive Preval of a first-round victory. They appear eager to end six years of political stalemate that delayed legislative elections and led to Aristide’s flight from power two years ago.

“You can shoot at us but we won’t vote twice!” shouted the crowd that filled the lawns, terraces and a half-mile-long driveway of the hilltop Montana.

Much of the crowd settled down after an appeal for calm by visiting South African peace campaigner Desmond Tutu, a guest at the hotel. Some protesters cast aside their tree branches and banners to sprawl in the flowering gardens or take dips in the pool.

U.N. troops flew Preval to the capital from his rural homestead in northern Marmalade in hopes he would calm his supporters. He huddled with U.N. and foreign diplomats but said only that “we want to see how we can save the process.”

From early morning, smoke billowed above burning tires and debris at key intersections of the capital, a repeat of the chaotic scenes that preceded Aristide’s flight from an armed rebellion in February 2004.

Since then, foreign troops have patrolled Haiti to deter looting, killing and kidnapping while a U.S.-backed interim government prepared to restore elected rule.

Preval supporters, who had marched peacefully in recent days, began to lose patience when the vote counting slowed over the weekend and estimates of Preval’s lead were scaled downward. Suspicions rose further after the electoral council, composed mostly of Aristide opponents, canceled its daily briefing Sunday, citing security concerns caused by the crowds massing outside the hotel. The tabulation center at the Montana was locked and empty Monday.

Electoral council employees failed to show up for work “because they felt insecure,” said David Wimhurst, spokesman for the 9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Wimhurst said peacekeeping troops fired only two warning shots in the Tabarre neighborhood, where the man was killed and four people were wounded. Gunfire from other sources was heard moments later, Wimhurst said.

The dead person, clad in a yellow T-shirt bearing Preval’s likeness, was identified by friends as Junior Cherry, 19.

Wimhurst said the nine-member electoral council was being urged to finish the count so the country could get on with preparations for the March 19 elections to determine the victors for many of the 129 parliamentary seats also on last week’s ballot.

Times staff writer Williams reported from Miami and special correspondent Regnault from Port-au-Prince.