Haitians expect to return Aristide to Presidency

Many polling stations in the capital remained closed past their scheduled 6 am EST (1100 GMT) opening and voters were lined up at the gates. When they opened, some reported just a trickle of voters, while others predominantly in pro-Aristide neighborhoods reported a larger turnout, poll observers said.

“I want to vote because I would like to see the situation in Haiti change significantly. There are many, many hungry people who don’t have food to eat,” said Corvil Wilner (40), a tailor, who said he would vote for Aristide.

Elections officials prepared nearly 12,000 polling stations in the nation of 7.8 million people, some 4 million of whom were eligible to vote.

The poorest nation in the western hemisphere with per capita annual income of just $400, Haiti is struggling once again to throw off decades of dictatorship and military rule. Aristide was its first democratically-elected President, a fiery former Roman Catholic priest, who was swept into the National Palace on a wave of grass-roots support, a decade ago.

Now 47, Aristide is considered the most popular politician in Haiti and is expected to win the election easily over the unknown candidates who challenged him in the absence of the nation’s Opposition parties.

An election victory will give Aristide sweeping power. His Lavalas Family Party won Parliamentary and municipal elections overwhelmingly in May and controls the Legislature and most local offices.

But Haiti is holding this election without the support of traditional allies like the United States, Canada and the European Union, after international observers declared the May vote miscalculated totals in several Senate races that gave Lavalas candidates victories without runoffs.

Political analysts have said it appears likely the United States will not recognise the new government.

At a teacher training school near the imposing National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince, President Rene Preval, Aristide’s hand-picked successor, who won the Presidency in 1995, cast a ballot before noon.

“What I learned from this experience is first, there is no coup d’etat. Second … this is the first time we have held an election on time according to the Haitian Constitution,” Preval said.

Opposition parties boycotted the vote and asked their supporters to do likewise because of the tainted May election. Some residents of the capital went to polling stations but declined to vote, in protest.

“It’s not the moment to vote,” said a 24-year-old Opposition supporter who went to a polling station at Ecole Nationale Argentine Belle Garde, a primary school in central Port-au-Prince. “If Aristide doesn’t want to sit down with the Opposition, he can’t do anything for this country.”

Belle Garde, a school with a dusty courtyard surrounded by concrete block walls topped with coiled razor wire, was the site of a massacre of voters during an abortive attempt at a national election in 1997, shortly after the fall of Haiti’s Duvalier dictatorship. Turnout at the school was light.

“This is a dead zone because people remember the killings,” one poll worker said.

Aristide’s supporters have been awaiting the chnce toreturn him to the presidency, feeling cheated that his last term was interrupted by a bloody 1991 military coup that sent him into exile just seven months after he took office.

“I’ve waited a long time for Aristide. It’s time for him to return,” said Ermonon Charles (37).

A US-led multinational force restored Aristide to power in 1994. But democracy has been on shaky ground since.

Preval won the 1995 election handily. But his term in office was marred by a fractious legislature that Left Haiti’s government virtually unable to function.

Aristide also will face daunting challenges. Haiti has an illiteracy rate of about 80 per cent and a similar unemployment rate. Sixty-two per cent of its people are underfed, better than only Somalia and Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.

Many Haitians are without electricity, streets in the capital are in ruins, potable water is in short supply and the environment has been badly degraded.

Political chaos in the last three years and the Government’s refusal to amend the results of the May elections have also put millions of dollars in international aid at risk.

Aristide must also persuade friendly nations that he is willing to introduce market reforms and continue a program of privatizing government businesses.

“The youth of our country have big expectations for him,” said Louines Felicien (28), a security guard who was lined up to vote.