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Quiet but Not Necessarily Calm in Haiti
Haitians wait in the town of Gonaives to receive their identification for voting in the presidential election, the first since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted two years ago.
(Photos By Daniel Aguilar -- Reuters)
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Class issues may define the contest to wrest Preval from the top spot. Preval, who is credited with building schools in poor areas and improving social services while he was president, is getting his strongest challenge from Charles Henri Baker, a businessman favored by Haiti's entrenched elite. Baker, who has campaigned with pledges to take a tough stance on crime, has tried to connect with voters by using the nickname "Charlito."
A former president -- Leslie Manigat, who was deposed by a coup in 1988 after less than four months in office -- is also considered a leading candidate. Among the others capable of taking votes from the front-runners are candidates with florid résumés, such as Guy Philippe, the brash leader of the rebel forces who toppled Aristide.
Hoping to avert the fraud charges that plagued the 2000 election, thousands of poll watchers sponsored by international groups will spread among 800 polling places. Helicopters will transport ballots from rural areas, and laminated tally sheets will replace easily altered handwritten documents, though official results are not expected for two or three days.
"This election is a turning point for democracy in Haiti," said Felix Ulloa of the Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, which is monitoring the election. "In 2000, it was a mess."
Yet, there is still great discontent about the lack of absentee ballot provisions, effectively excluding half a million Haitians in the United States from voting unless they fly to Port-au-Prince. Because of security concerns, there will be less than half as many polling places as in 2000, and there have been reports that some rural voters will have to walk six hours to cast ballots. And there will be no polling places in Cite Soleil, a bedrock of Preval support.
"If I am not going to put my life in danger, I cannot ask a member of the [Haitian election commission] to do so," Jacques Bernard, the commission's director general, when asked about Cite Soleil at an election eve news conference.
But leaders in the slum -- including a charismatic, 24-year-old gang boss known as T. Blan, who carries journalists' business cards in a worn Bible -- have vowed to lead a mass exodus on foot on election day.
T. Blan may get wet. Rain is forecast, promising that election day in Haiti -- at the very least -- could be muddy.
