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Haitians flock to polling booths

A victory for democracy, says United Nations special envoy Juan Valdes

REACHING REMOTE AREAS: Uruguayan peacekeepers provide security to election materials being transported on mules in Archaie, Haiti, on Monday. — PHOTO: AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Haiti): Haitians jammed polling stations on Tuesday as U.N. peacekeepers fanned out to guard the country's first presidential election in nearly six years, a vote widely viewed as a key step in steering this bloodied, impoverished nation away from collapse.

Clutching newly minted voter ID cards, about 1,000 persons lined up before dawn at a polling station in the Port-au-Prince area of Delmas, waiting for electoral officials to open the doors.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. EDT, but voting was delayed at several polling stations in the capital, said David Wimhurst, a U.N. spokesman.

Mobilised for change

Outside a polling station in the downtown slum of Bel-Air, hundreds of waiting voters snaked along rutted, trash-strewn streets. ``Haitians are mobilised for change. That's why there's so many people in the street this morning,'' said Jean Joseph (44), as he went to cast his ballot.

U.N. special envoy to Haiti Juan Gabriel Valdes said he was happy to see long lines during a tour of a polling station in Bel-Air. ``It's a victory for democracy, a victory for Haiti,'' Mr. Valdes said. ``It's calm and people are lining up to exercise their right to vote.''

Minutes later, however, a scuffle broke out at the station, when voters began shouting, pushing and shoving to keep their position in line. Several fainted and were carried out.

Authorities urged Haitians to vote in large numbers under the protection of thousands of U.N. peacekeepers, saying Tuesday's election was important in reversing Haiti's cycle of despair.

``Haiti's future depends on this vote,'' said Jacques Bernard, director general of the electoral council. ``Good elections are the only solution to saving our nation.''

Poll workers were slow to open the doors at some stations, waits were long and someone stole a batch of ballots, but there were no reports of major violence, Mr. Wimhurst said. ``So it's going well far.''

Helicopters, truck and even mules ferried election supplies into remote corners of the Caribbean nation, which has never seen democracy fully take root. Only one elected President, Rene Preval, has served out his term in office, from 1996 to 2001.

Mr. Preval, a 63-year-old agronomist, is now the front-runner, according to opinion polls. Other top contenders among the 33 candidates are Charles Henri Baker (50), whose family runs factories in the assembly-for-export industry, and Leslie Manigat (75), who was President for five months in 1988 until the army ousted him when he tried to shake up its high command.

Also running are a former rebel in the insurgency that forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office in February 2004 and a former army officer accused in the death of a Haitian journalist. If no candidate wins a majority, a March 19 runoff would be held between the top two candidates.

Hundreds of candidates are also running for 129 parliamentary seats.

AP

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