Threats, Delays Don’t Derail Haiti Elections

Braving threats of violence, Haitians lined up by the thousands Sunday for a vote to restore democracy and in the process free half a billion dollars in desperately needed foreign aid.

The Haitians’ strong determination to vote--not seen since 1990 elections brought Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in Haiti’s first democratic balloting--was frustrated by delays lasting several hours.

Hundreds of people were waiting to vote in the legislative and local elections at 5 p.m., when stations were scheduled to close. However, by law, those in line at that hour were allowed to cast ballots.

By noon, most voting places in Port-au-Prince, the capital, were functioning, but more than 100 disgruntled voters protested in the seaside shantytown of Cite Soleil. Another group, angry that some voting stations had not opened by 4 p.m., set tires ablaze in a failed attempt to block a road in the capital’s Delmas district.

Electoral Council spokesman Roland Sainristil said turnout was about 60% even though about 20% of stations were unable to open. In the fraud-plagued 1997 elections, only an estimated 5% of voters cast ballots.

Electoral officials said Sunday that security concerns delayed distribution of voter rolls and ballot papers. But chief opposition leader Gerard Pierre-Charles condemned the delays as “sabotage.”

Vote tallies are not expected until today at the earliest, and final results are not expected until late this week.

Campaigning was marred by at least 15 politically related slayings since March 27, arson attacks on opposition offices and rumors that violence would erupt at the polls.

Most opposition parties accuse Aristide’s governing Lavalas Family party of violent intimidation and plotting fraud.

The elections would restore a working legislature, which President Rene Preval disbanded in 1999. In addition, the elections, postponed at least four times, also would free $500 million in desperately needed foreign aid that is on hold until the country is legally governed.