|
|
Change Your Life! |
Aristide's party wins control of Haiti Senate, early returns show |
|
News |
|
|
May 31, 2000
The results of the May 21 vote - which had been delayed several times - suggested strong support for the controversial former priest, who is expected to run for president again this fall. The ballot was also widely seen as an important chance for democracy in the impoverished, unstable Caribbean nation of 8 million people.
The first results, released Monday by Electoral Council spokesman Jean-Gardy Lorcy, showed the Lavalas Family Party winning 14 of the 27 seats in the Senate.
Nineteen of the 27 seats were up for election in the latest vote. Of the remaining five seats, one was won by independent Luc Fleurinor, two had not been counted as of Monday night and two had to be rescheduled because of technical problems on voting day. No new date for them has been scheduled.
The Lavalas party also were confirmed to have won 16 of the 83 seats that were up for election in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies. In an additional 31 races for the lower house, no candidate won an absolute majority, and runoffs were scheduled for June 25. In most of those districts the Lavalas candidate was leading.
The results of several thousand local government positions were not announced. Gerard Pierre-Charles, the leader of the Struggling People's Organization, the majority party until January 1999, denounced the results as "the implementation of a totalitarian plan to take over every institution of the country."
Although voting was peaceful, the results seem likely to only deepen divisions here. "We have no totalitarian intention," said Yvon Neptune, Lavalas Family spokesman. "The Haitian people want to get out of the rut of crisis, and we want to implement a project that will change society. We want peace and security, so we can concentrate on the big problems."
Opponents fear that Lavalas widely intimidated opposition candidates in the months before the vote, rendering it unfair. They say they will not accept the results and will boycott any runoffs. At least 15 people were slain in political killings in the two months leading up to the balloting.
Tensions have intensified over the past week as at least 34 opposition politicians were arrested on various charges, including inciting violence and illegal arms possession. President Rene Preval, an Aristide supporter, dissolved Parliament in January 1999 and appointed a new premier two months later. Most opposition parties accuse Preval and Aristide of collaborating to establish a totalitarian state.
Aristide was elected in 1990 but overthrown in a 1991 army-backed coup. U.S. troops restored him to power in 1994, but Haitian law barred him from seeking a consecutive term in 1995 elections. Since the invasion, the international community has poured more than dlrs 1 billion into this Caribbean nation, one of the world's least developed.
More than 2 million Haitian voters - an estimated 60 percent of the electorate - cast their ballots in the elections. Despite fears of violence, international observers and local monitors reported violence in only 15 of more than 11,000 polling stations.
Still, there were numerous alleged irregularities. Many election stations were staffed exclusively by Aristide partisans, opposition parties complained. They charged that their poll-watchers were expelled from the stations because the electoral council only validated the identity cards of Aristide poll workers.
After the vote, ballot boxes were piled up at the central election office and ballots spilled out in the street, making a recount impossible.
Despite the problems, both the National Council of Election Observers and the Organization of American States Election Observation team said the elections were acceptable.
|