Haiti counts votes in presidential election

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - UN troops moved ballots by helicopter and mule across rural Haiti and computers tallied results today after the country's first presidential election since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted two years ago.

Tensions ran high, and at least four people died in election-day incidents, but a feared explosion of violence failed to materialize as Haitians cast ballots yesterday in what could prove the latest election to trouble Washington.

US officials pressed Aristide to quit Haiti after a month-long armed revolt in 2004 only to find his one-time ally Rene Preval the election favorite.

There was no widespread election bloodshed in a country that has seen repeated coups and into which US troops have been sent three times in the past century. Haiti was plagued by kidnappings and gang violence in the months before the vote and one of the dead on yesterday was a policeman killed by a mob after he shot someone.

The United Nations and Organisation of American States said the election appeared to be a step forward in impoverished Haiti's quest to establish a stable democracy after years of dictatorship and military rule.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised Haitians for a relatively calm vote and appealed to them to respect the results.

"As the new authorities assume their responsibilities, it will be essential that all political and social actors come together in a spirit of national reconciliation and dialogue ...," he said in a statement issued in New York.

Counters worked overnight by candlelight to tally votes in places where there was no power. Mules retrieved ballots from remote villages and helicopters were used to fly them to the capital, UN officials said.

By morning, the count was completed in several centres, including a trash-strewn warehouse near the Cite Soleil slum.

A tally of 20 polling stations in that centre produced an expected result -- 75 per cent for ex-president Preval. His top rivals, former President Leslie Manigat and industrialist Charles Baker, had 10 and 3 per cent respectively.

The sample of about 3700 votes was likely not representative because it was so close to a Preval stronghold.

But even a couple of polling stations in Petionville, the Port-au-Prince suburb where many of Haiti's wealthy live, appeared to have gone heavily for Preval, 63, who led Haiti from 1996 to 2001, between Aristide's two presidencies.

Preval, who is opposed by the elites who helped push Aristide into exile in South Africa in 2004, must capture more than 50 per cent of the vote to avoid a runoff on March 19.

In an election carried out under the watchful eyes of some 9000 UN peacekeepers, many poor voters cried fraud when polling stations near the Cite Soleil slum failed to open on time, reinforcing concerns that the authorities would try to prevent slum residents from voting.

Businessman Baker, who ran second in opinion polls, said the election had "a lot of problems," citing late openings and reports that some people voted more than once.

The turnout was among the best in the short democratic history of the poorest country in the Americas, officials said. Baker said the electoral process was unable to cope.

"People were voting three, four, five times," he told Reuters television. "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 Aristide was adored.

Some voters said the heavy 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.

Critics accused Aristide of corruption and despotism during his second term but he remains popular in the slums. Preval has gained the support of many Aristide loyalists.

- REUTERS