Quote of note:

"Haiti has a very long history of dictatorship and military rule, but somehow the Haitian people still believe they can make their voices heard," said Michele Pierre-Louis, head of the nation's Open Society Institute, the organization funded by philanthropist George Soros to promote democracy.

Aristide Ally Is Ahead in Haiti Poll
Tuesday's vote could see the reelection of Rene Preval as president, but some fear violence and chaos as thousands of voters still lack ID cards.
By Carol J. Williams
Times Staff Writer
February 6, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — More than five years have passed since Haitians last voted. Those elections were marred by violence and fraud, leading to an armed rebellion, the president's flight into exile in Africa and the arrival of foreign troops to impose order.

But as Haitians prepare for Tuesday's elections for president and legislature, a sense of deja vu prevails. The threat of violent disruption hangs over the vote, and the leading candidate is a former president who was unable to bridge the historical chasm between slum dwellers and a small, entrenched elite.

The capital's slums, racked by warfare, remain so volatile that polling places were moved to safer venues. Hundreds of thousands of residents will have to walk miles through dangerous battlegrounds to cast their ballots. In Cite Soleil, which has seen the deadliest violence, thousands have taken to the streets in recent days accusing organizers of trying to disenfranchise the poor.

More than 300,000 of the 3.5 million voters who registered in autumn for high-tech voter ID cards still haven't received them. Their anger echoes the cries of foul play that followed parliamentary elections in May 2000.

That vote, swept by JeanBertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family party, prompted an opposition boycott of the presidential election six months later, which Aristide won handily. Discontent swelled into rebellion over the next three years, driving him to abandon the presidency in February 2004. He left the country under U.S. escort.

"I don't want to think there are manipulations behind it," said Mirlen Pignat, 33, who has lined up at election offices across Port-au-Prince every day since Dec. 24 in search of the voting card she applied for in September.

Most troubling to many Haitians may be the feeling outsiders have taken over this country of 8.5 million. A 9,000-member United Nations force has been in charge of security for nearly two years and will patrol the streets and polling stations election day. The U.N. and Organization of American States have overseen registration, poll worker training, production of the voting cards and the printing of ballots.