Haitians were due to vote for a president and a new chance at democracy yesterday although many fear rival armed gangs could wreck the election.
"Haiti's future depends on this vote," Jacques Bernard, Director General of the electoral council said. "Good elections are the only solution to saving our nation."
Exactly 20 years after the dictatorial rule of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier crumbled, yesterday's vote offers some hope for an end to the coups and instability that have crippled Haiti since then.
PHOTO: EPA
In the most recent uprising, former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced to flee two years ago.
A new round of fighting, however, could plunge the poorest country in the Americas into even deeper chaos.
"People are exhausted by this instability, the lack of security," Gerard Le Chevallier, the top UN official overseeing the election, said on Monday.
Frontrunner Rene Preval draws support from the miserable urban slums and rural areas where his mentor Aristide was strongest.
Preval was also president from 1996 to 2001, an era of relative calm, and he is Haiti's only elected leader to end his term and hand over power peacefully.
"He gave us roads, hospitals, schools. ... He brought us work and there was peace," Marie Claude, a 41-year-old mother of seven said.
Preval has a comfortable lead in opinion polls but needs to win at least 50 percent of the votes to avoid a run-off next month. Officials say it will take three days to count the ballots.
Preval's main rivals are Charles Baker, a successful industrialist, and Leslie Manigat, who was president for four months in 1988 before being overthrown in a military coup. There are 33 presidential candidates including a former rebel in the insurgency that forced Aristide from office in February 2004 and a former army officer accused in the death of a Haitian journalist, but most stand no chance.
UN forces used trucks and even mules to ferry ballot papers to voting stations around the country on Monday.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the 9,300-member UN peacekeeping force "will do all it can to support the Haitian authorities in ensuring that the vote is held in freedom and safety."
Serious logistic problems forced several postponements and, on the eve of voting, officials warned people in TV ads that some polling stations had been moved.
Many Haitians suspect the unelected interim government has tried to make voting as difficult as possible in poor areas to hurt Preval. Some say they were not told where to cast their ballots and others will have to walk several kilometers.
A Preval victory could upset Haiti's business elite and the US government, which in 2004 dropped its earlier support of Aristide and pushed him to step aside.
Security fears forced authorities to postpone the election several times but pro-Aristide gang leaders recently changed tack by backing the elections and telling people to get out and vote.
With that, the level of violence and crime has dropped dramatically in recent days.
Still, experts say Haiti is awash with weapons and that Preval's supporters could turn violent if he loses or if they suspect fraud. On the other side, anti-Aristide armed groups could try to disrupt the election to keep Preval out of power.
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