Haiti: one more shameful UN betrayal

Cholera is just the latest disaster to be linked to the UN in Haiti – and the election won't change the nature of the mission


Haiti Battles With Cholera Outbreak, As Death Toll Reaches 1,000 A cholera patient is treated in Saint Nicholas hospital, Haiti. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Almost everyone now accepts that the United Nations brought cholera to Haiti last month. The evidence is overwhelming and many experts (including the head of Harvard University's microbiology department, cholera specialist John Mekalanos) made up their minds to that effect several weeks ago.

Poverty and a lack of rudimentary infrastructure compels much of Haiti's population to drink untreated water, but there has been no cholera there for decades. Haitians have no experience with – and therefore little resistance to – the disease. All the bacterial samples taken from Haitian patients are identical and match a strain endemic in southern Asia. Cholera broke out in Nepal over the summer, and in mid-October a new detachment of Nepalese UN troops arrived at their Haitian base in Mirebalais, near the Artibonite river. A few days later Haitians living downstream of the base started to get sick and the disease spread rapidly throughout the region. On 27 October, journalists visited Mirebalais and found evidence that untreated waste from UN latrines was pouring directly into an Artibonite tributary.

By early November, Mekalanos couldn't see "any way to avoid the conclusion that an unfortunate and presumably accidental introduction of the organism occurred" as a result of UN troops. Mekalanos and others also refute UN claims that identification of the source should be a low public health priority.

Probably as a result of UN negligence, more than 1,200 people are already dead and 20,000 infected, and the toll is set to rise rapidly over the coming weeks. So is the number and intensity of popular protests against this latest in a series of UN crimes and misadventures in Haiti in recent years, which include scores of killings and hundreds of alleged rapes.

Rather than examine its role in the epidemic, however, the UN mission has opted for disavowal and obfuscation. UN officials have refused to test Nepalese soldiers for the disease or to conduct a public investigation into the origins of the outbreak. Rather than address the concerns of an outraged population, the agency has preferred to characterise the fresh wave of protests as a "politically motivated" attempt to destabilise the country in the runup to presidential elections on 28 November. Protesters have been met with tear gas and bullets; so far at least three have been killed.

So far, in fact, so normal. The truth is that the whole UN mission in Haiti is based on a violent, bald-faced lie. It says it is in Haiti to support democracy and the rule of law, but its only real achievement has been to help transfer power from a sovereign people to an unaccountable army.

To understand this requires a little historical knowledge. The basic political problem in Haiti, from colonial through post-colonial to neo-colonial times, has always been much the same: how can a tiny and precarious ruling class secure its property and privileges in the face of mass destitution and resentment? The Haitian elite owes its privileges to exclusion, exploitation and violence, and only quasi-monopoly control of violent power allows it to retain them. This monopoly was amply guaranteed by the US-backed Duvalier dictatorships through to the mid 1980s, and then rather less amply by the military dictatorships that succeeded them (1986-90). But the Lavalas mobilisation for democracy, which began in the 1980s, threatened that monopoly and with it those privileges. In such a situation, only an army can be relied upon to guarantee the security of the status quo.

Haiti's incompetent but vicious armed forces, established as a delegate of US power, dominated the country for most of the 20th century. After surviving a brutal military coup in 1991, Haiti's first democratically elected government – led by president Jean-Bertrand Aristide – finally demobilised this hated army in 1995; the great majority of his compatriots celebrated the occasion. Lawyer Brian Concannon recalls it as "the most important step forward for human rights since emancipation from France". In 2000, Aristide was re-elected, and his Fanmi Lavalas party won an overwhelming majority. This re-election raised the prospect, for the first time in modern Haitian history, of genuine political change in a situation in which there was no obvious extra-political mechanism – no army – to prevent it.

The tiny Haitian elite and their allies in the US, France and Canada were threatened by the prospect of popular empowerment, and took elaborate steps to undermine the Lavalas government.

In February 2004, Aristide's second administration was overthrown in another disastrous coup, conducted by the US and its allies with support from ex-Haitian soldiers and rightwing leaders of the Haitian business community. A US puppet was imposed to replace Aristide, in the midst of savage reprisals against Lavalas supporters. Since no domestic army was available to guarantee "security", a UN "stabilisation force" was sent in at the behest of both the US and France.

The UN has been providing this substitute army ever since. At the behest of the US and its allies, it arrived in Haiti in June 2004. Made up of troops and police drawn from countries all over the world, it operates at an annual cost that is close to twice the size of Aristide's entire pre-coup budget. Its main mission, in effect, has been to pacify the Haitian people, and make them accept the coup and the end of their attempt to establish genuine democratic rule. Few Haitians are likely to forget what the UN has done to accomplish this. Between 2004 and 2006, it participated in a campaign of repression that killed more than a thousand Lavalas supporters. It laid siege to the destitute pro-Aristide neighbourhood of Cité Soleil in 2005 and 2006, and has subsequently contained or dispersed popular protests on issues ranging from political persecution and privatisation to wages and food prices. In the last few months the UN has also kept a lid on the growing pressure in the capital, Port-au-Prince, for improvement in the intolerable conditions still endured by about 1.3 million people left homeless after January's earthquake.

Today, cholera or no cholera, the UN's priority is to ensure that next week's elections go ahead as planned. For Haiti's elite and their international allies, these elections offer an unprecedented opportunity to bury the Lavalas project once and for all.

The political programme associated with Lavalas and Aristide remains overwhelming popular. After six years of repression and infighting, however, the political leadership of this popular movement is more divided and disorganised than ever. Fanmi Lavalas itself has simply been barred from participation in the election (with hardly a whisper of international protest), and from his involuntary exile in South Africa, Aristide has condemned the ballot as illegitimate. Many if not most of the party's supporters are likely to back its vigorous call to boycott this latest masquerade, as they did in the spring of 2009, when turnout for senate elections was less than 10%. This time around, however, half a dozen politicians associated with Lavalas have chosen to run as candidates in their own name. They are likely to split the vote. Haiti's people will be deprived of what has long been their most powerful political weapon – their ability to win genuine elections.

Since it is almost guaranteed to have no significant political impact, this is one election that might well achieve its intended result: to reinforce the "security" (and inequity) of the status quo, along with the many profitable opportunities that a suitably secured post-disaster Haiti continues to offer international investors and its business elite. "This will be an election for nothing," says veteran activist Patrick Elie. Properly managed, it may even provide an opportunity for rightwing presidential candidates like Charles Baker to pursue the goal that has long been at the top of their agenda: restoration, with the usual "international supervision", of Haiti's own branch of the imperial army.

And if that comes to pass, then when the UN eventually leaves Haiti its departure may only serve as a transition from one occupying force to another, reversing decades of popular sacrifice and political effort. In the meantime, though, it looks as if the UN may soon have more opportunities than ever before to fulfil its mission in Haiti.

Haitians prepare for an 'election of halves'
Mark Doyle By Mark Doyle BBC News, Port-au-Prince
Haitians during a campaign rally, Port-au-Prince Election rallies have been a welcome distraction for many Haitians

This Sunday's presidential election in Haiti will either be a triumph of democracy over an almost unbelievably grim reality - or a farce.

Eighteen presidential candidates are contesting the polls against a backdrop of disasters that a Hollywood movie scriptwriter would have trouble making you believe.

The poorest country in the western hemisphere - created in the 17th Century as a brutal slave colony - has this year alone suffered a devastating earthquake, a violent hurricane and, now, a raging cholera epidemic.

And yet colourful election rallies have been held.

Dynamic opposition candidates like Michel Martelly, a popular music star known on the street as Sweet Micky, have wowed impoverished crowds with speeches, jokes and small gifts.
Haitian presidential candidate Michel Martelly performs during a political rally in downtown Port-au-Prince November 25, 2010 Popular music star Michel Martelly is one of the candidates

Overhead, small planes paid for by the ruling party have criss-crossed the skies, trailing huge banners with the name of its candidate: "Vote Jude Celestin".

And the leading female candidate, Mirlande Manigat, has toured the country, pushing her ratings up in some opinion polls to give her a chance of a good showing.
'Music and slogans'

But it is far from politics as usual.

Election caravans blaring music and slogans pour down earthquake-shattered streets where millions of tonnes of rubble still lie.

The candidates speak in public squares where some of the one and a half million people made homeless by the quake subsist in shabby tents.

And the politicians pass places where corpses from the cholera epidemic - that has so far killed more than 1,600 people, according to the Ministry of Health - have been collected by squads of workers with disinfectant spray guns and body bags.

"It has been difficult but not impossible to organise these elections," said top Haitian government adviser Jean Renald Clerisme.

This must surely be the understatement of the year.
“ It has been difficult but not impossible to organise these elections”
End Quote Jean Renald Clerisme Government adviser

Mr Clerisme was speaking in the shadow of the Presidential Palace, a once-imposing white icon, now reduced to rubble by the quake.

However, critics of the election say it is a farce.

What they describe as the most popular political party, the Left-leaning Fanmi Lavalas party, or Lavalas Family in English, of exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has been barred from standing.

Mr Aristide, a former priest and liberation theologist, has ruled Haiti on three occasions - 1990 to 1991, 1994 to 1996 and 2001 to 2004.

On the last occasion he was forced out of office by a military rebellion - which he says was backed by right wing Haitians and the United States - a country which still has enormous influence here.
'Perceived technicalities'

Mr Aristide has always been unpopular with the small but powerful Haitian elite.

Voting in Haiti
Police stand guard in front of a campaign truck at a political rally for Haitian presidential candidate Jude Celestin in the Delmas neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince November 25, 2010

* First elections since a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake in January killed 250,000 people
* Eighteen candidates are running, including a former prime minister, former first lady and popular musician
* The victor will succeed President Rene Preval, who cannot run again after serving two terms
* 4.7m registered to vote in the 28 November polls
* Some candidates have already anticipated possible fraud

Mr Clerisme said the reasons for his exclusion from this election were legal and technical: Mr Aristide's party did not file candidates' application forms correctly.

"In a democracy you have rules," Mr Clerisme said.

Whether Fanmi Lavalas is the biggest party or not, he added, you cannot have one rule for some parties and another for Mr Aristide's.

"It's a farce, a charade," said Nicole Phillips, a lawyer with the US-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, who is visiting for the elections.

"We know Fanmi Lavalas is the most popular party because it has won by a landslide all past the elections it has been allowed to contest.

"Excluding it is like holding an election in the United States but not allowing the Democrats to stand," she said.

A report in June 2010 by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee called on the Haitian government to ensure that Fanmi Lavelas is "not excluded from the elections because of perceived technicalities".

But the party was excluded.

“ Excluding Fanmi Lavalas is like holding an election in the United States but not allowing the Democrats to stand”
End Quote Nicole Phillips Institute for Justice and Democracy

Other candidates who were once members of Fanmi Lavalas are standing, but under different party banners.

Critics on the Left say this is because the incumbent ruling elite has successfully "divided and ruled" Mr Aristide's party through selective patronage.

At the same time, however, some of those candidates would have decided to stand for themselves. They are, after all, politicians hungry for power.

And it is also true that Mr Aristide was no saint.

"He was a demagogue," said Richard Widmaier, the boss of one Haiti's private radio stations, Radio Metropole.

"When you're dealing with a largely illiterate population, it is easy to twist minds.

"I have nothing personal against him, but he did give the press a hard time," he added.
'Half election'

What Haiti has ended up with this weekend is a sort of half election.

Many people lost everything in the earthquake - including their voting cards. So perhaps half of them will not vote.
Ted Petion lays on his mothers lap while being treated for cholera in the German Red Cross cholera treatment facility on November 26, 2010 in Archaie, Haiti There have been some calls for the polls to be delayed due to the continuing cholera epidemic

The "donor community" (as it is inaccurately known - because it takes as well as gives) is half enthusiastic about the polls.

As a minimum it wants a semi-legitimate administration to emerge from the polls, as does the Haitian elite.

Both groups know that if the current unpopular transitional government remains in power, chaos or violent revolution is possible.

But whether either group seriously intends to subsequently address the fundamental problems of the Haitian people is another matter.

And, finally, what of the people themselves?

They half want an election. For them, the generally good-natured election rallies are a welcome distraction from their everyday struggle to survive.

Music and free T-shirts are the modern equivalent of the ancient Romans' bread and circuses.

But the people also more than half know that, barring miracles, the elite will hang on to the power and the money, and they will be left in their tents and their slums.

This is an election in a time of cholera.

It is an election in the wake of one of the biggest natural disasters in modern history.

Its success, or otherwise, will probably be measured in halves.
- Show quoted text -

Haitians Face Disarray at the Polls

By DAMIEN CAVE and RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: November 28, 2010


PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti — Delays, excitement, shoving, arrests and accusations of fraud marked the morning of Haiti’s first election since January’s earthquake, as 18 candidates for president squared off for a chance to run the Western hemisphere’s poorest country as it tries to rebuild.

The polls here were supposed to open at 6 a.m. Sunday, but delays of several hours were common here in the capital as election workers struggled with voter lists and the so-called monitors hired by political parties to oversee the vote. Hundreds of these political workers, eager for a day of work that paid about $12, showed up early at polling locations across the city, scuffling for position as voters struggled to get through.

“It’s worse than usual,” said Lenonie Jean, 66, as she waited to cast her ballot at the Lycee Alexander Petion, a block from the demolished national cathedral.

Some international observers also expressed concern about poor organization as Haitian radio stations reported a handful of arrests involving people carrying several of the national identification cards needed for voting and, in one case, the arrest of a man who also had a ballot box and a pile of blank ballots in what appeared to be an attempt at fraud.

It was difficult to get a full picture of how the day would unfold. Several voting centers visited by reporters appeared organized and calm, with Haitians of all ages lining up patiently and party representatives quietly watching from the background. At others — downtown, in the suburb of Petionville, and at an apartment building built by the deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide — ballots arrived late and tensions rose as voters complained of being barred from casting ballots.

Some of the problems were institutional and obvious. Fewer than half of the more than 400,000 new and replacement national identification cards necessary for voting were thought to have been distributed, leaving thousands frustrated before the day began. But there were also cases that were harder to explain.

Outside a voting center in Petionville, a wealthier suburb now filled with makeshift camps, young men waved their national I.D. cards at police as they complained to reporters of being denied entrance.

Inside, among the various classrooms used for voting, the struggle of Sultane Lubin was common. She appeared just after 10 a.m. on the second floor, wearing a cheerful peach suit that contrasted sharply with the anger she directed at anyone who looked official. “I’ve been here since 6 a.m., I have to vote,” she shouted at an election worker, then another. Eventually, a young woman guided Ms. Lubin to a room with names taped up outside. It included several other Lubins, but not Sultane.

She turned to a police officer for help. “I’m just here for security,” the police officer said.

Ms. Lubin stood still, as if stuck in place. “I’m in misery,” she told a reporter. “I can’t survive and all I want to do is choose a president who will help me.”

Once again, those elections were selections. Jude Célestin ,Edmon Mulet ,Clinton and René Préval are rapping the democrasy in Haiti.

Bill Quigley


Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights; Professor, Loyola New Orleans
Posted: November 26, 2010 01:08 PM


Five Reasons to Care about Haiti's Sham Elections


Haiti needs legitimate leaders right now. Unfortunately, the elections set for November 28, 2010 are a sham. Here are five reasons why the world community should care.

First, Haitian elections are supposed to choose their new President, the entire House of Deputies and one-third of the country's Senate. But election authorities have illegally excluded all the candidates from the country's most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas -- and other progressive candidates. Lavalas, the party of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has won many elections in Haiti -- probably the reason it was excluded. If this were the US, this would be like holding elections just between the Tea Party and the GOP -- and excluding all others. Few Haitians will respect the outcome of these elections.

Second, over 1.3 million Haitian survivors are struggling to raise their families in 1,300 tent refugee camps scattered around Port au Prince. The broken Haitian political system and the broken international NGO system have failed to provide Haitians with clean water, education, jobs, housing, and access to healthcare almost a year after the earthquake. Now cholera, a preventable and treatable disease, has taken the lives of over 1,600 people. Some are predicting that the infection could infect as many as 200,000 Haitians and claim 10,000 lives. Without legitimate leaders Haiti cannot hope to build a society which will address these tragedies.

Third, because the elections are not expected to produce real leaders, Haiti is experiencing serious protests on a daily basis. Protests have occurred in Port au Prince and Cap Haitien, where two people died in clashes with the authorities. In other protests, like a recent one in Port au Prince, demonstrators representing 14 Haitian grassroots groups try to stage peaceful protests. But when UN peace keeping forces arrived they drew their weapons on demonstrators. As the crowd fled for safety, the UN and Haitian police threw teargas canisters into the crowd and the nearby displacement camp, Champ de Mars. Residents were taken to the hospital with injuries from the teargas canisters. The media has wrongfully typecast the political demonstrations as "civil unrest" filled with angry, drunk rioters. No one mentions that much of the violence has been instigated by the law enforcement, not the demonstrators. Faux elections are not going to help deliver stability.

Fourth, political accountability has never been more important in Haiti than right now. The Haitian government must guide Haiti's reconstruction and make important decisions that will shape Haitian society for decades. Yet, many of the three million Haitians affected by the earthquake are ambivalent about the elections or do not want them to take place at all.

Fifth, the United States has pushed and paid for these swift elections hoping to secure a stable government to preserve its investment in earthquake reconstruction. But, as Dan Beeton wrote in the LA Times, "If the Obama administration wants to stand on the side of democracy and human rights in Haiti, as it did in Burma, it should support the call to postpone the elections until all parties are allowed to run and all eligible voters are guaranteed a vote." By supporting elections that exclude legitimate political parties that are critical of the current government the international community is only assuring the very social and political unrest it hopes to avoid.

Haitians are saying that no matter which candidates win on November 28, the political system that has failed them will not change unless there is an election that is fair and inclusive. They are also asking that the country undergo a reconciliation process that includes the voices of more than just the Haitian elite and international community.

Haiti desperately needs legitimate leaders. The November 28 sham election will not provide them.

Nicole Phillips of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti coauthored this article.

US has engineered a sham election while people are dying. Shame on the US!
Callous twisted people!
S.
S.

It's Let's Make A Deal Time!

How much for allowing you to "win" the Elections?

Only a few billion hang in the balance

U.S. Senator says ``political uncertainty'' could cost Haiti billions of dollars


BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND TRENTON DANIEL
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- U.S. lawmarkers and Latin American experts are calling on Haiti's dueling presidential candidates to sit down and resolve the electoral crisis in an effort to seize billions of dollars in reconstruction dollars.

acould cost the dire nation billions of dollars in reconstruction dollars if left unresolved, a powerful U.S. senator said.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., will discuss Haiti later today at a hearing of the Senate foreign relations committee. In a prepared statement provided to The Miami Herald the senator, Lugar blames Haitian President René Préval's failure to enact needed reforms for the chaos and irregularities in Sunday's legislative and presidential elections.

``I and others urged President Préval to enact much needed reforms to ensure the credibility of these elections. He refused to do that. As a result, the elections have been fraught with numerous reports of irregularities and fraud,'' Lugar said in the hearing.

Earlier this summer Lugar and others called Préval to change the nine-member Provisional Electoral Council. But the president, noting that he had already changed the CEP before, refused to budge.

``Political uncertainty now threatens to exacerbate the human suffering in Haiti,'' he added.

Since the devastating January earthquake, at least 1. 5 million people remain under tents and tarps and a cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,700 people in the past month.

``The United States has an interest in helping to address the ongoing humanitarian problems in Haiti, and we will continue to do that through various means,'' Lugar said. ``But our willingness to direct funds through the Haitian government depends on the fair, transparent, and legal resolution of the current political crisis.''

Meanwhile, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti is urging Haitians to be patient and wait on official election results.

``The `quick counts' or opinion polls are not an exact science. Individuals and media should not be guided by the unofficial results, speculation or assumed partial accounts that are currently circulating. The only poll that counts is the one that took place on November 28,'' it said in a statement.

``We call on everyone to be patient and await the announcement of official results of the Dec. 7,'' it added. ``The Provisional Electoral Council should have time and political stability to complete its work, the result will be subject to possible challenge by candidates, political parties and the Haitian people through the legal process of litigation.''

The political tension in the country was especially evident on Tuesday when the UN troops and protesters clashed in a second day of demonstrations in Saint Marc, a western port city north of Port-au-Prince.

Witnesses said UN peacekeepers -- clad in riot gear and carrying riot shields -- fired shots in the air and tear gas in the direction of opposition protesters who were supporting presidential candidate Mirlande Manigat and senatorial candidate Francois Anick Joseph. Protesters retaliated by burning tires and throwing rocks.

A UN spokesman said he had no information on rubber bullets or tear gas used but noted that about 600 protesters had assembled in front of the UN base in Saint Marc.

``They were burning tires and throwing rocks on our forces there,'' said Jean-Francois Vezina, a spokesman for UN police.

Tear gas could be seen down the street from the UN base in Saint Marc Tuesday evening.

``It's Madame Manigat we need for president,'' Suzette Louis, 35, a street merchant, said across the street.

Also on Tuesday, several hundred Manigat supporters marched through Gonaives, a gritty sea port city north of Saint Marc, for a second day. Sen. Youri Latortue led them.

``We only want to show President Préval that the people are not happy with the vote -- it wasn't respected,'' Latortue said after he wrapped up the demonstration Tuesday afternoon.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/01/1951451/some-claim-victory-even-though.html#ixzz16uQCH5hp

Violence flares as Haiti releases election results
Protesters set fire to ruling coalition's HQ; U.S. questions vote count


*

Image: Haitians protest election results
Guillermo Arias / AP
Supporters of presidential candidate Michel Martelly demonstrate in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday.
The Associated Press
updated 2 hours 47 minutes ago 2010-12-08T19:45:25


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The headquarters of Haiti's ruling party was set ablaze Wednesday as protests over disputed presidential election results spread through the Haitian capital, prompting the nation's president to call for calm.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets, erecting barricades and setting fires, furious that government-backed candidate Jude Celestin, the protege of unpopular President Rene Preval, apparently will go on to a runoff vote while carnival singer Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly finished third in official results and is probably eliminated. Protests have also broken out in Les Cayes, Cap-Haitien and other cities.


Associated Press journalists saw flames leaping from the roof of the Unity party headquarters, the center of Celestin's campaign. Witnesses said the building in central Port-au-Prince was on fire for an hour.

Protesters said security guards shot demonstrators as they assaulted the building, but there were no confirmed injures in the fire or demonstration. Several fire trucks tried to control the blaze — an unusual scene in a city with few reliable public services.

Preval urged the candidates to call off the protests.

"This is not how the country is supposed to work," he said in a live radio speech. "People are suffering because of all this damage."


The president dismissed allegations that fraud invalidated the election results and faulted the U.S. Embassy for its criticism of the vote, saying it would be up to the country's Provisional Electoral Council, known as the CEP, to review the results.


"If there are problems we can sit down and personally discuss it, but the American Embassy is not the CEP," he said.

The official preliminary results have law professor and former first lady Mirlande Manigat in first with 31.4 percent of the vote and Celestin next with 22.5. Martelly has 21.8 percent — trailing Celestin by about 6,800 votes.

'We are going to kill people'
Hundreds of protesters massed near the offices of the electoral council in Petionville, with young men hurling rocks at U.N. peacekeepers in armored personnel carriers. The international troops and police occasionally responded with volleys of tear gas.

The area around the electoral office includes a plaza that is home to several thousand people in a tent encampment erected after the Jan. 12 earthquake so it was unclear whether all of the people on the street were protesters or if some were spectators. Also uncertain were the intentions of the demonstrators.

"If Michel Martelly is not president, in a day or two days things are going to get a lot worse," said 22-year-old Lucate Hans, carrying a stick and the pink campaign poster of his candidate. "Tensions are going to rise and we are going to kill people."

The results, announced after hours of delays Tuesday evening, were immediately questioned at home and abroad. The U.S. Embassy said the results did not match reports by official election observers who said Celestin would likely be eliminated in the first round.

An appeals period is open for the next three days, and election observers said a third candidate might be included in a Jan. 16 runoff if the electoral council decides the first-round vote was close enough — though the constitutionality of such a move would be debatable.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern about allegations of fraud and the violence and he urged candidates to use only formal, legal procedures to make any challenges to the results, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.


"He reminds all candidates that they have a personal responsibility to encourage their supporters to remain calm and to stop violence. A peaceful solution to the current situation is crucial not only to confront the cholera epidemic in the short-term but also to create the conditions in the medium term for recovery and development from the earthquake," Nesirky said at U.N. headquarters in New York.

But the protesters would not wait, and marched through the streets. About 2,000 pro-Martelly demonstrators also gathered near the U.S. Embassy but dispersed without incident.

"We want to tell them Martelly is the president. We won't accept anything less. Otherwise we will set this country on fire," Frances Odis said.

Martelly supporters also set up flaming barricades in Petionville, the smoke of burning tires blackening the air. Thousands were on the streets, singing political songs and chanting for "Micky."


Widespread destruction
Vehicles were damaged by rocks and items were reportedly stolen from stores. Foreign aid workers complained that Haitian national police were slow to respond and that many officers refused to report to duty following the election results.

American Airlines halted flights in and out of the Haitian capital because airport employees were unable to get to work Wednesday because of demonstrations, spokeswoman Martha Pantin said.

In Les Cayes residents said government buildings had been attacked and set on fire.



Martelly had said before results were released that he believed he would win, and would not accept a spot in a runoff in which Celestin is present. He had not made a statement Wednesday, though some of his staffers had praised the protests on Twitter.

Thousands of voters were disenfranchised by confusion on the rolls during the Nov. 28 election and there were many reported incidents of ballot-stuffing, violence and intimidation confirmed by international observers.

Turnout was low according to the preliminary results, as just over 1 million people cast accepted ballots out of some 4.7 million registered voters. It is not known how many ballots were thrown out for fraud.

Officials acknowledged the rolls were both bloated and incomplete, with hundreds of thousands of earthquake dead still registered and many living voters waiting for ID cards. In the last days of counting, tabulators had to sort out clearly fraudulent tally sheets.

The U.N. secretary-general has said the problems were worse than originally reported. But the U.N. peacekeepers and the joint Organization of American States-Caribbean Community observer mission said the problems did not invalidate the vote.

The chief observer with the OAS-Caricom mission, Colin Granderson, appealed for patience.

"Remember that the results are only preliminary results," Granderson told AP. "For all candidates who believe there were irregularities or fraud, there are recourses provided by the electoral law."

Manigat, a 70-year-old law professor, is the wife of former Haitian president Leslie Manigat who served briefly in the late 1980s after a much-criticized election before being deposed by a coup. Her supporters include a powerful senator who organized violent protests in his home department ahead of the first round of voting.

Celestin, a virtual unknown before the election, is the candidate of Preval's Unity party. He is the head of the state-run construction company whose trucks carted bodies and limited amounts of rubble out of the city after the Jan. 12 quake.


His campaign was the best-funded of the group but Preval's inability to jump-start a moribund economy or push forward reconstruction after the massive earthquake drained his support. Many voters said they would accept "anyone but Celestin," whom they equate with the unpopular Preval.

The clear winner in the bid for Senate seats was Preval's party, which advanced to a run-off in eight of the 10 races in which it competed and won a ninth outright.

Independent candidate, Steven Benoit, a former member of Preval's abandoned Lespwa movement who championed an increase in the minimum wage, won the 11th Senate seat for the area including Port-au-Prince.

___

Associated Press writers Jacob Kushner in Port-au-Prince and Ben Fox in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report

Blazing protests demand carnival singer lead Haiti
By JONATHAN M. KATZ
,
AP
posted: 10 MINUTES AGO
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -Protesters enraged by the results of Haiti's troubled presidential election set barricades and political offices ablaze, traded blows with U.N. peacekeepers and shut down the country's lone international airport Wednesday, creating the social upheaval many have feared since the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The fallout from the Nov. 28 election, riddled by fraud, is violently shutting down cities across the impoverished country with gunfire and barricades at a moment when medical aid workers need to tackle a surging cholera epidemic that has claimed more than 2,000 lives.

Haiti's Radio Metropole reported that at least one demonstrator was killed in Les Cayes, about 120 miles west of Port-au-Prince in the country's southern peninsula.

The protesters back a popular carnival singer who narrowly lost a spot in a runoff election to Jude Celestin, a political unknown viewed by supporters and detractors alike as a continuation of unpopular President Rene Preval's administration. The U.S. Embassy criticized the preliminary results Tuesday, saying Haitian, U.S. and other international monitors had predicted that Celestin was likely to be eliminated in the first round.

On Wednesday, demonstrators carried pink signs with the smiling face and bald head of their candidate, Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly. They decorated barricades with empty ballot boxes, used government campaign posters to start fires and challenged heavily armored foreign soldiers to near-theatrical confrontations.

Outside the provisional electoral council headquarters, a former gym in the suburb of Petionville, young men wearing their shirts as masks threw rocks at U.N. troops. The soldiers — Indians and Pakistanis working as a single unit — responded with exploding canisters of tear gas that washed over a nearby earthquake-refugee camp, sending mothers running from their tarps with their crying, coughing children in tow.

Protesters set fire to the headquarters of Preval and Celestin's Unity party. Multiple fire trucks responded to the scene as flames licked the roof — an unusual scene in a country with few public services — but in late afternoon piles of charred campaign posters continued to smolder.

"We want Martelly. The whole world wants Martelly," said James Becimus, a 32-year-old protester near the U.S. Embassy. "Today we set fires, tomorrow we bring weapons."

Other protesters said they would continue to mobilize but do so nonviolently, as Martelly urged in a radio address Wednesday afternoon. He also told supporters to watch out for "infiltrators" who might try to incite violence.

"Demonstrating without violence is the right of the people," he said. "I will be with you until the bald-head victory."

Preval had earlier urged the candidates to call off the protests.

"This is not how the country is supposed to work," he said in a live radio speech. "People are suffering because of all this damage."

Preval's administration has been condemned by many Haitians for failing to spearhead reconstruction of the country after the earthquake. More than an estimated 1 million people still live under tarps and tents and little of the promised international aid from the United States and other countries has arrived.
Preliminary election results put Celestin ahead of Martelly by just 6,845 votes for second place. Former first lady and law professor Mirlande Manigat took first place with 31.4 percent of the vote, while Celestin had 22.5 percent and Martelly 21.8 percent. The top two candidates advance to the Jan. 16 second round.

Thousands were disenfranchised by confusion on the rolls, which were overstuffed with earthquake dead but lacked many living voters. There were reported incidents of ballot-stuffing, violence and intimidation confirmed by international observers, but U.N. peacekeepers and the joint Organization of American States-Caribbean Community observer mission said the problems did not invalidate the vote.
Turnout was low. Just over 1 million people cast accepted ballots out of some 4.7 million registered voters. It is not known how many ballots were thrown out for fraud.

In a televised address, Preval took a swipe at Washington's criticism of the election results, saying that while he was open to discussing electoral problems with anyone, "the American Embassy is not (the electoral council)."

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. is not fomenting the unrest.

"The United States is in no way responsible for the actions of any individual. What we are determined to help Haiti achieve is a credible election and a result — not one that the United States will impose — but one that the people of Haiti can participate in fully," he told reporters in Washington.

Martelly had joined with 11 other candidates, including Manigat, to accuse Preval of trying to steal the election while polls were still open.

An appeals period is open for the next three days, and election observers said a third candidate might be included in the runoff if the electoral council decides the first-round vote was close enough — though the constitutionality of such a move would be debatable.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern "about allegations of fraud" and "the acts of violence that have taken place in the aftermath of the announcement," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said at U.N. headquarters in New York.

He said all candidates have a responsibility to encourage their supporters to refrain from violence.
Vehicles were damaged by rocks and items were reportedly stolen from stores. Foreign aid workers complained that Haitian national police were slow to respond and that many officers refused to report to duty.

American Airlines canceled all flights in and out of the Haitian capital because airport employees were unable to get to work Wednesday because of demonstrations, spokeswoman Martha Pantin said. Flights will also be canceled on Thursday.

The U.S. Embassy reported that the smaller regional airport at Cap-Haitien was also closed due to demonstrations and barricaded roads.
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Associated Press writers Jacob Kushner in Port-au-Prince, Ben Fox in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Bob Burns in Washington and Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.