HAITI: Voters in Haiti are due to go to the polls today in a presidential election seen as vital to the future stability of one of the world's most impoverished countries. Although polling has been delayed four times for security and administrative reasons, all the major players now seem committed to voting taking place.
Thirty-two candidates are seeking office in the first election since the ousting two years ago of the former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, now in exile in South Africa. So far 3.1 million identity cards have been issued which entitle the holders to vote and turnout is expected to be high if there are no outbreaks of violence.
The favourite to win is Rene Preval (63), an agronomist, former president and prime minister under Mr Aristide and the person seen as most likely to bring stability to the country.
Opinion polls in the country are unreliable, but most show Mr Preval well ahead of his nearest rivals, with between 40 per cent and 60 per cent of the vote. There will be a run-off on March 19th if no candidate takes more than 50 per cent.
Mr Preval's main rivals are seen as Charlito Baker, a wealthy businessman who has the support of the right, and Leslie Manigat, a former president overthrown in a military coup in 1988. If either Mr Baker or Mr Manigat come second, they will benefit from a pact of nine parties pledged to support each other in the run-off against Mr Preval, who is opposed by the country's elite.
Two men who would have been contenders have been disqualified. Gerard Jean-Juste, a Catholic priest and Amnesty prisoner of conscience, was detained without charge last July, over the murder of journalist Jacques Roche and prevented from registering as a candidate. He was provisionally released from jail on health grounds last week and is now in the US receiving treatment for leukaemia.
Another would-be candidate who also enjoyed popular support is Dumarsais Simeus, a Haitian-American multi-millionaire businessman who was barred because of his US citizenship, despite two supreme court rulings in his favour.
The election timetable has been fraught with problems. The Brazilian head of the UN peacekeepers in Haiti, Gen Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, committed suicide last month.
There have also been frequent clashes in the Cite Soleil area of Port-au-Prince, the capital.
Two Jordanian UN peacekeepers were killed last month and the UN forces in Cite Soleil have been accused of being reckless with their gunfire. Kidnappings remain a problem.
"The election is step number one," said David Wimhurst, the spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti. "There is a long road ahead, but there is no other road." He said that a "very negative attitude" towards the election last December had changed and now there was a mood in favour of voting taking place. - (Guardian service)