- Title: HAITI: HAITIANS VOTE IN A NATIONAL ELECTION
- Date: 26th November 2000
- Summary: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (NOVEMBER 26, 2000) (REUTERS--ACCESS ALL) 1. SV PEOPLE PASSING UNDERNEATH HUGE ELECTION BILLBOARD 0.04 2. SLV POLICE CHECKING FOR BOMBS IN THE SUBURB OF PETITION VILLE (A BOMB WAS FOUND ON SATURDAY 25/11 AND POLICE ARE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR MORE BOMBS) (3 SHOTS) 0.18 3. SLV/SV POLICEMAN RUNNING WITH GUN/ POLICE OFFICERS GATHERED TO CHECK FOR BOMBS (2 SHOTS) 0.26 4. LV/SV OF PEOPLE WAITING TO VOTE (3 SHOTS) 0.39 5. SV/TV OF PEOPLE INSIDE POLLING STATION VOTING (5 SHOTS) 1.14 6. LV/SV/CU ARTIST IN STREET PAINTING A PORTRAIT OF CANDIDATE JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE (4 SHOTS) 1.27 7. SV/MCU OF PEOPLE VOTING (2 SHOTS) 1.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 11th December 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
- Country: Haiti
- Reuters ID: LVA9MRVZA5AVG2K6N8NW1QTJ1R31
- Story Text: Millions of Haitians have been voting in a national
election expected to return the country's first freely elected
leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to the presidency after a
five-year absence.
Election Day dawned with clear skies in the Haitian
capital where millions lined up on Sunday (November 26) to
cast their vote to choose their next president.
Police were on the look-out for bombs following a week of
bombings that killed two children and other violence
apparently intended to intimidate voters in an election being
boycotted by all major opposition parties.
An explosion rocked the slum area of Carrefour early on
Sunday, wounding one person, and police were in the streets in
force.
Many polling stations in Port-au-Prince still were closed
at the scheduled 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) opening time, with
voters gathered at the entrances waiting.
Election officials prepared nearly 12,000 polling stations
in the poor Caribbean nation of 7.8 million people, some 4
million of whom had registered to vote.
The poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere with per
capita annual income of just 400 U.S. dollars, 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.
The now 47-year-old 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 recognize the new government.
Aristide's supporters have been awaiting the chance to
return 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.
A U.S.-led multinational force restored Aristide to power
in 1994. But democracy has been on shaky ground since.
In 1995, Aristide's hand-picked successor, Rene Preval,
won election handily. But his term in office was marred by a
fractious legislature that left Haiti's government virtually
unable to function.
Preval ultimately dissolved parliament and began ruling by
decree.
Aristide also will face daunting challenges. Haiti has an
illiteracy rate of about 80 percent and a similar unemployment
rate. Sixty-two percent 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.
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