Haiti election gets mixed report card

by Jim Loney

09 February 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 9 (Reuters) – International observers on Thursday gave Haitian voters high marks for patience and determination in Tuesday's election but criticized election officials for late poll openings and irregularities.

Voting for a new president and legislature two years after an armed revolt sent Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile, Haitians turned out in large numbers and swamped unprepared polling stations, resulting in chaos during the first few hours of balloting, but little of the violence that had been feared.

Two observer teams, representing the European Union and a group of eight countries in the Americas, lauded Haitian voters for persevering in the face of problems at the polls.

The report card from the European Union observers was preliminary and would be followed at the end of the election by a fuller analysis.

The Haitian people have clearly and freely expressed their desire to build a future of democracy," said Jean-Pierre Kingsley, chairman of the International Mission for Monitoring Haitian Elections.

Both missions said voters lacked privacy at polling stations. Flimsy cardboard screens were set up on tables or in some cases, on floors with voters crouching behind them to write on their ballots.

Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council "did not possess sufficient administrative and organizational capacity for the conduct of elections," said Johan Van Hecke, head of the EU mission.

Van Hecke, a member of the European Parliament, told reporters that "overall, the administration of the process could have been of a higher standard," and urged authorities to improve their performance by a second round vote on March 19.

It was unclear on Thursday whether a second round, held if no candidates obtains more than 50 percent of votes, would be necessary.

Early indications suggested ex-president Rene Preval, a one-time Aristide ally, might have won a majority needed to avoid a run-off. The election was Haiti's first since Aristide was driven from power in 2004 by a rebellion of armed gangs and former soldiers, and under U.S. and French pressure to quit.

Kingsley, whose group represents Canada, the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, said the late openings and other polling problems may have caused some voters to give up and go home, but "I think that that impact was most probably minimal."

The group had more than 120 observers who visited 280 of Haiti's 800 polling centers.

Violence was rampant in Haiti during the run-up to the election. Kidnappings were virtually a daily occurrence and many candidates avoided the Cite Soleil slum in the capital, the scene of gun battles between U.N. peacekeepers and gangs.

The EU team noted the campaign was "limited in nature" but said it was held "in an atmosphere that was largely peaceful and in which freedoms of expression, assembly and association were largely respected."

Hecke said EU observers witnessed no major problems with vote counting.

Jim Loney is a reporter for Reuters.