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Haitian official alleges vote manipulation
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-13 08:54
A member of Haiti's electoral council said results of the presidential
elections were being manipulated, echoing complaints by throngs of supporters of
Rene Preval, who poured into the streets on Sunday with angry allegations of
fraud.
With 75 percent of votes counted, Preval was falling short of winning
Tuesday's elections outright by less than a percentage point.
"According to me, there's a certain level of manipulation," Pierre Richard
Duchemin, an electoral council member, told The Associated Press, adding that
"there is an effort to stop people from asking questions" about the counting
process.
Duchemin said Sunday he needed access to tallies of vote counts in hopes of
learning who was behind the alleged manipulation. He called for an
investigation.
Preval's supporters poured out of different neighborhoods of the capital and
converged on the electoral council headquarters. Blowing horns and pounding
drums, they denounced Jacques Bernard, director-general of the nine-member
electoral council.
Haitian police officers stand on guard while supporters of
Haitian presidential favorite Rene Preval demonstrate outside the
electoral commission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Feb. 12,
2006.[AP] | "Jacques Bernard is a thief. He doesn't know how to count!" they chanted.
U.N. peacekeepers blocked Preval supporters from reaching the Montana Hotel,
where election officials have been giving updates on the results.
"When you get thousands of people on the streets, things can get
unpredictable," said U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst.
Bernard denied accusations the council voided many votes for Preval, a former
president.
Suspicion has risen among many Haitians that the results were being
manipulated in the five days since voters turned out in droves to elect a new
government. It will replace an interim government installed after then-President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a bloody rebellion two years ago.
Jean-Henoc Faroul, the president of an electoral district with 400,000 voters
northeast of the capital, accused the electoral commission of trying to force a
runoff, saying tally sheets from Preval strongholds have vanished.
"The electoral council is trying to do what it can to diminish the percentage
of Preval so it goes to a second round," Faroul told The Associated Press.
Faroul said he wanted Preval to win but added that he would be protesting if any
candidate was being denied votes by manipulation.
"I am not only the president of an electoral board, but I also vote," Faroul
said. "And I want my vote and the votes of all the people to be respected."
Preval demonstrators threatened violence if Preval is not declared the
first-round winner. As demonstrators marched on the Montana Hotel, the electoral
council abruptly canceled a Sunday evening news conference.
"If they take the election from Preval, it's not going to go smoothly," said
Robert Antoine, a 23-year-old from the Bel-Air slum. "The people voted massively
for Preval, and it seems the electoral commission is playing games with the
results."
Duchemin accused Bernard of "megalomania," saying he had blocked other
council members from getting information on the tabulation process.
"What we're talking about now is a magician that is sitting down and saying
'I am the only one doing something ... everything I'm doing is perfect,'"
Duchemin said. "We're playing with the future of this country and this is
something we can't afford."
Preval was leading 33 candidates with 49.1 percent of the vote, short of the
50 percent plus one vote he needs to avoid a March 19 runoff with the runner-up.
Leslie Manigat, also a former president, was second with 11.7 percent of the
vote.
South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, presiding over services at Trinity
Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, urged Haitians to be patient.
"They've started well, let them finish the race well," Tutu, the retired
Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, told the AP. "And I think they
will, that they will be peaceful and that they will accept the results of the
elections."
An estimated 2.2 million people cast ballots, or 63 percent of registered
voters.
About 125,000 ballots — or 7.5 percent of the votes cast — have been declared
invalid because of irregularities, raising suspicion among Preval supporters
that polling officials are trying to steal the election. Another 4 percent of
the ballots were blank but were still added into the total, making it harder
Preval to obtain the 50 percent plus one vote needed.
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