Preval Says He Will Contest Haiti Vote

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 14, 5:11 PM EST AP) -- Leading presidential candidate Rene Preval claimed Tuesday that "gross errors" and likely fraud marred the vote that saw him fall just short of a first-round victory, and he said he would contest the results.

He also urged supporters to protest peacefully, a day after at least one pro-Preval demonstrator was killed and followers elsewhere occupied a hotel.

White U.N. armored vehicles shoved aside roadblocks of junked cars, old refrigerators and other debris blocking the streets of the capital Tuesday, and most were clear by mid-afternoon. Businesses remained shuttered, but street markets bustled with shoppers.

Preval, a former protege of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who enjoys wide support among the poor, called on followers to remove all roadblocks so people can get to work.

"I ask the Haitian people ... to be mature, to be responsible, to be nonviolent," Preval told reporters while sitting on a couch on the lawn of his gated home in the Petionville suburb.

The most recent election results, which were posted on the electoral council's Web site Monday afternoon, showed Preval had 48.76 percent of the vote with 90 percent of ballots counted. He would need 50 percent plus one vote from the Feb. 7 election to win outright and avoid a March runoff.

"If they publish the results as they are now, we will oppose them, the Haitian people will also oppose them, and there will be protests," Preval said.

"We are convinced that either massive fraud or gross errors stain the (electoral) process" Preval said, adding that the official results "do not correspond with reality."

The constitution indicates a challenge would go to the Supreme Court, but the interim government recently decreed that any complaints should go to the electoral commission - the same body issuing the results.

U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said no evidence of fraud was detected in the elections. "If he believes there have been irregularities, he has the right to request an investigation," Wimhurst told The Associated Press.

Officials haven't said when they will release final results. The U.N. said pro-Preval demonstrations were preventing election personnel from going to work and many counting centers had closed because of security concerns.

The U.N. Security Council urged Haitians to respect election results and refrain from violence, and it extended the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti for six months, until Aug. 15.

Some 7,300 U.N. troops and 1,750 international police are in the country under Brazilian command, helping national police maintain order. The U.N. mission replaced a U.S.-led force that arrived after a three-week uprising toppled Aristide in February 2004.

A popularly elected government with a clear mandate from the voters is seen as crucial to avoiding a political and economic meltdown in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. Gangs have gone on kidnapping sprees and factories have closed for lack of security.

At least one protester was killed Monday in the Taberre neighborhood. Witnesses said U.N. peacekeepers opened fire from a jeep. Wimhurst first denied that peacekeepers fired any rounds, then later said they had fired in the air and that someone else fired shots afterward in the same area. Preval supporters also stormed into a luxury hotel in Petionville on Monday.

Preval, a former president, urged his supporters to "respect people's belongings" and to be on guard against provocateurs who try to foment violence.

He met the top U.N. official in Haiti and ambassadors from the United States, France, Canada and Brazil late Monday after coming to the capital on a U.N. helicopter from his rural home in the north.

A runoff election would pit Preval against second-place finisher Leslie Manigat, also a former president, who received 11.8 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results.

Manigat's wife, Myrlande, declined to say whether anyone had approached her husband about withdrawing. "We are not negotiating," she said in a telephone interview. "Our position is to wait until the (electoral council) releases the results."

Of the 2.2 million ballots cast, about 125,000 have been declared invalid because of irregularities, raising suspicion among Preval supporters that polling officials were rigging the election.

Four percent of the ballots were blank but were still added to the total, making it harder for Preval to obtain the 50 percent plus one vote needed.

Jacques Bernard, director-general of the nine-member electoral council, has denied that the council voided many votes for Preval.