HAITI: Early results trickled in yesterday from Haiti's first election since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed two years ago, and international observers said the vote was relatively clean and non-violent.
At least four people died during a day of sometimes chaotic balloting in which some polling stations opened - and closed - hours later than scheduled. One of the dead was a policeman killed by a mob after he shot a person, but there was no widespread bloodshed.
Counting began shortly after polls closed on Tuesday, but officials have said the winner might not be known for days.
Poll workers pored over ballots by candlelight in places where there was no electricity and some ballot boxes travelled from mountainous, remote areas by mule.
By morning, they had completed the count in one centre, a large, rubbish-strewn warehouse near the Cite Soleil slum.
A tally of 20 polling stations in that centre produced the expected result - 75 per cent for René Preval, a former president and Aristide protege.
Among his top rivals, former president Leslie Manigat took 10 per cent and industrialist Charles Baker 3 per cent. The sample of about 3,700 votes was probably not representative because it was so close to a Preval stronghold.
The election could prove troublesome for US policymakers, who pressured Mr Aristide to leave after an armed revolt in 2004 only to find his one-time ally Mr Preval favoured to win. Mr Preval, one of 33 candidates, must capture more than 50 per cent of votes cast to avoid a runoff on March 19th.
Haitian election authorities said the repeatedly delayed vote appeared to have been a success, but others cried fraud.
Mr Baker, who ran a distant second to Mr Preval in pre-ballot opinion polls, said the election had "a lot of problems". He cited the late opening of many polling stations and what he said were indications some voters had cast more than one ballot.
The turnout was among the best for any election in the short democratic history of the poorest country in the Americas, officials said. Mr Baker called the turnout "massive", but said the electoral process was unable to cope.
"People were voting three, four, five times," he said. "Was it widespread? We don't know yet." The election, delayed several times since November by problems registering 3.5 million voters and hiring thousands of poll workers, brought hordes from the slums where Mr Aristide, now exiled in South Africa, was adored. They appeared to vote heavily for Mr Preval.
Some voters said the turnout proved the people of Haiti - beset by poverty, violence and political turmoil - desperately wanted democracy despite their nation's struggles since the brutal Duvalier family dictatorship ended in 1986.
"Finally the elections took place and they are good elections of which all Haitians can be proud," said José Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organisation of American States.