Charges of vote-count manipulation hit Haiti poll [View All]

[mom cat]

Charges of vote-count manipulation hit Haiti poll
12 Feb 2006 21:05:39 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Haitians awaited the final results of their first election since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was driven from power amid growing concern that the vote tabulation, which has taken more than four days, was being manipulated.

Former president Rene Preval, who leads the first round of voting by a wide margin, complained that there was a "problem" with the counting of votes, and two members of the nine-member council that oversees elections said there was "manipulation" at the tabulation center in the capital.

Preval, an Aristide protege who worries the wealthy elite who helped oust Aristide in February 2004, held 49.1 percent of the votes counted so far, according to results posted on Sunday morning on the Provisional Electoral Council's (CEP) Web site.

Preval needs 50 percent to avoid a March 19 run-off against the second-place candidate, currently ex-president Leslie Manigat at 11.7 percent.

more at:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12187838.htm
This is what I have been fearing.