Haiti Voters to Elect President After Four Delays

Voters in Haiti are due to go to the polls tomorrow in a presidential election seen as vital to the future stability of one of the world’s most impoverished countries. Although polling has been delayed four times for security and administrative reasons all the major players now seem committed to voting taking place.

Thirty-two candidates are seeking office in the first election since the ousting two years ago of the former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, now in exile in South Africa. So far 3.1m identity cards have been issued which entitle the holders to vote and turnout is expected to be high if there are no outbreaks of violence.

The favorite to win is René Préval, 63, an agronomist, former president and prime minister under Mr Aristide and the person seen as most likely to bring stability to the country.

Opinion polls in the country are unreliable but most show Mr Préval well ahead of his nearest rivals, with between 40% and 60% of the vote. There will be a run-off on March 19 if no candidate takes more than 50%.

Mr Préval’s main rivals are seen as Charlito Baker, a wealthy businessman who has the support of the right, and Leslie Manigat, a former president overthrown in a military coup in 1988. If either Mr Baker or Mr Manigat come second, they will benefit from a pact of nine parties pledged to support each other in the run-off against Mr Préval, who is opposed by the country’s elite.

Two men who would have been contenders have been disqualified. Gérard Jean-Juste, a Catholic priest and Amnesty prisoner of conscience, was detained without charge last July, over the murder of journalist Jacques Roche and prevented from registering as a candidate. He was provisionally released from jail on health grounds last week and is now in the US receiving treatment for leukemia.

Another would-be candidate who also enjoyed popular support is Dumarsais Simeus, a Haitian-American multi-millionaire businessman who was barred because of his US citizenship despite two Supreme Court rulings in his favor.

The election timetable has been fraught with problems. The Brazilian head of the UN peacekeepers in Haiti, General Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, committed suicide last month. There have also been frequent clashes in the Cité Soleil area of Port-au-Prince, the capital. Two Jordanian UN peacekeepers were killed last month and the UN forces in Cité Soleil have been accused of being reckless with their gunfire. Kidnappings remain a problem.

"The election is step number one," said David Wimhurst, the spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti. "There is a long road ahead but there is no other road."

He said that a "very negative attitude" towards the election last December had changed and now there was a mood in favor of voting taking place.