Haiti Opposition Candidate Abducted, Party Official Says

Gunmen kidnapped a local opposition candidate in the latest violence to hit Haiti’s election campaign, a party official said Wednesday.

Four men in a pickup truck abducted Claudy Myrthil in front of his home in a Port-au-Prince suburb Tuesday, said Mischa Gaillard, spokesman for the five-party opposition coalition, known as Space for Concord.

“The atmosphere is one of terror,” Gaillard said. “We need security for candidates and voters to have a free and fair election.”

Myrthil is running for a seat on a city government advisory board. His sister told the private Radio Kiskeya that he had been threatened.

At least 10 people have been killed, including several opposition officials, in election-related violence in recent weeks. Haiti is scheduled to hold two rounds of legislative and municipal voting, on May 21 and June 25.

As part of a crime wave that has accompanied the political violence, Alicia Matos, wife of Spanish Ambassador Rafael Matos, was slightly injured Monday by a mob throwing stones at passing vehicles. Foreign diplomats met Tuesday with President Rene Preval to ask that police crack down.

Opposition politicians blame supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide for the political violence. Aristide, who denies the accusations, plans to run in presidential elections scheduled for December.

Militants claiming to support Aristide razed Space for Concord’s headquarters and stoned the offices of the opposition Struggling People’s Organization on April 8.

Opposition leaders say two local party managers have been killed, party offices in other towns attacked and campaign workers beaten. Haiti’s most prominent radio journalist, Jean Dominique, was slain April 3.

Preval, an Aristide ally, has accused the opposition of “fueling the climate of disorder” with its anti-violence protests.