Haiti

(Quelle: UN News) After updating the Security Council on the election process in Haiti, the United Nations top envoy to that country welcomed President-elect René Préval’s invitation for Haitians to join together in a national dialogue. … Besides supporting such national dialogue, Mr. Valdés said that upcoming priorities for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) – now that its mandate has been renewed – include the professionalization of the police force, so that it is able to confront the security situation in the Cite Soleil, the gang-ridden inner-city neighbourhood of the capital Port-au-Prince.

(Quelle: ISN) The head of Haiti's official election commission has fled the country in fear for his life after unidentified attackers burned down his farmhouse, news agencies reported. Election commission head Jacques Bernard told the authorities on Friday, a day after his farmhouse was burnt to the ground, he had received death threats and requested tighter security in the aftermath of tense presidential elections earlier this month.

(Quelle: Washington Post) Preval, whose plans are vague and whose ambitions are understated, will be forced to confront the problems of a nation with almost no functioning judicial system, corrupt and inept law enforcement, deep poverty and abominable public sanitation. Then there are the violent gangs that rule urban slums, the kidnapping rings and a flourishing drug and money-laundering trade. … Preval hopes to attract foreign investment to Haiti, but he acknowledges that it 'will not happen tomorrow morning.'

(Quelle: BBC) The Caribbean regional grouping, Caricom, says it is ready to re-admit Haiti following the presidential election there earlier this month. The group's secretary-general, Edwin Carrington, said Haiti now had a democratic government which could sit down with Caricom and discuss re-entry. … Caricom suspended Haiti's membership after the ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide two years ago.

(Quelle: BBC) Officials in Haiti say they have reached an agreement to declare Rene Preval president, after a vote marred by claims of irregularities. The announcement was made after urgent talks between government and electoral officials, according to the Associated Press news agency. … Under the reported agreement, some of the blank ballots were subtracted from the total number of votes counted, taking Mr Preval over the 50% threshold.

(Quelle: Washington Post) Haiti's fractured electoral process, already disrupted by street protests Monday, stalled further on Tuesday as the leading presidential candidate, Rene Preval, said 'gigantic fraud' had kept him from a first-round victory and official vote-counters refused to report for work because they feared attacks by protesters. … David Winhurst, a spokesman for the United Nations, said that 'we have no evidence of fraud.' The United Nations supplied 9,000 troops to safeguard the election.

(Quelle: New York Times) Tens of thousands of people paralyzed traffic with flaming barricades here on Monday, charging fraud in the tabulation of votes from the election for president last week, and demanding that René Préval be declared Haiti's next president, even though results suggested that he had not won the required majority of votes in the first round. Electoral authorities reported Monday afternoon that votes tabulated from more than 90 percent of the country's 9,000 polling places showed that while Mr. Préval had a strong lead over his nearest rivals, he had slipped farther from a first-round victory, with 48.7 percent of the votes.

(Quelle: Reliefweb) Preval, who led the impoverished Caribbean nation from 1996 to 2001, did not claim victory but sounded like a winner after election officials said the one-time Aristide protégé was leading with 61 percent after about 283,000 votes had been counted. … Another former president, Leslie Manigat, trailed in second place with 13.4 percent, while industrialist Charles Baker, the main candidate of the wealthy elite which opposed Aristide, had 6.1 percent. International observers praised the high turnout in a ballot that could set a new test for U.S. foreign policy, but criticized election officials for late poll openings and irregularities during Tuesday's election.

(Quelle: New York Times) United Nations troops began hauling ballots on Wednesday from remote voting centers across the country, as a politically polarized population braced nervously for results from Tuesday's presidential election. Gérard le Chevalier, head of the United Nations electoral mission here, said that poll workers had counted ballots through the night, and that tamper-proof transmission of results had begun.

(Quelle: BBC) International monitors have praised the running of Haiti's general election, as vote-counting gets under way. The head of the Organisation of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, said voting was satisfactory despite a chaotic start. At least three people died and dozens were injured in crushes at polling stations or altercations with police. It is the first vote since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted a year ago. Results are due on Friday.