Council Announces Victories for Aristide in Haitian Senate

Militant supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide paralyzed Haiti’s three biggest cities Monday, blocking streets and setting a fire outside the U.S. Embassy to demand the release of last month’s election results.

In response, the Elections Council announced the official results--giving Aristide’s party control of the Senate.

Those results were challenged by the international community and the council president, who fled the country over the weekend.

The announcement came hours after the United States demanded an honest count of ballots cast in legislative and municipal elections that are crucial to restoring about $500,000 million in suspended international aid.

The council said Aristide candidates won 16 of 17 Senate seats contested May 21.

But Haiti’s Radio Galaxie quoted Leon Manus, the council president, as saying earlier Monday that he refused to give in to pressure from President Rene Preval to sign off on incorrect results giving Aristide candidates 16 seats. Manus said Aristide candidates won only seven seats, the radio said in a report from its correspondent in the United States, where Manus fled after receiving a death threat.

Still to be announced are results for 83 seats in Parliament’s House of Deputies. Preliminary results gave Aristide candidates 23 seats.

The council also said it was postponing the second round of elections scheduled for Sunday but gave no new date for balloting. The elections are being held for the top two contenders in races where no candidate won a majority.

Earlier in Port-au-Prince, protesters stoned vehicles and set tire barricades ablaze. They blocked Port-au-Prince’s main arteries with hulks of vehicles, junked refrigerators and large rocks. Shops and schools stayed shut.

Protesters also reportedly paralyzed Cap Haitien and Gonaives.

Outside the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, demonstrators set a large pile of debris on fire and chanted anti-American slogans. Haitian police watched but did not intervene.