BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND TRENTON DANIEL
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com
Widespread irregularities in Haiti’s presidential and legislative race Sunday led most candidates to call for the election to be voided.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Election day protests swept Haiti on Sunday evening, when thousands of people took to the streets to rally against what they believed was widespread fraud in the day’s presidential race, including pre-stuffed ballots and thousands missing from voter rolls.

Voting bureaus were trashed and set on fire, international elections monitors withdrew in the middle of the voting, and some precincts closed due to sporadic violence.

The nation appeared headed to political crisis late Sunday as supporters of opposition candidates Michel Martelly, Charles Henri Baker and Mirlande Manigat poured into the streets in major cities throughout the country, asking for the presidential and legislative elections to be voided.

They weren’t the only ones: A dozen of the 19 presidential candidates vying for Haiti’s top post urged for “peaceful protests” against “massive fraud” in the country’s presidential and legislative races.

“The election is ruined. It needs to be canceled,” said former prime minister and presidential candidate Jacques-Edouard Alexis. “Our history has always shown that it’s the people who give the power.”

The Provisional Electoral Council said only 3.56 percent or 56 of the 1,500 voting centers had problems and that the results would, for now, be recognized.

In Grande Riviere du Nord, a town near Cap Haitien, hundreds marched singing “Down with Préval. Arrest Préval. Down with Gaillot,” referring to Haitian President René Préval and elections chief Dorsinvil Gaillot.

In Cap Haitien, at least 2,000 hit the streets chanting “Martelly is our President.”

Throwing rocks and bottles, protesters tore ballots and set some voting stations ablaze after opposition parties accused Préval supporters of arriving at voting bureaus with transparent boxes prefilled with ballots.

Some voters bragged about casting multiple ballots.

Despite reports of chaos, confusion and isolated incidents of violence, elections chief Gaillot said elections “have been accomplished and are a success.”

Although a United Nations report said that three people died in Desdunes, he said just one person was killed and that an update on the problems will be provided in three days.

The U.N. top envoy Edmund Mulet urged Haitians to remain calm while expressing “their deep concern at the numerous incidents that marred the elections.”

“The United Nations and the international community urge the public and all political actors to remain calm, recalling that any deterioration of security in the country will have dramatic consequences on the immediate casualties of the epidemic of cholera,” he said.

Many voters complained that their names did not appear on voter rolls, and some voting stations closed early due to violence and vandalism. At one voting station in Desdunes, in the Artibonite Valley, a box of presidential votes sat open while observers for the ruling party’s candidate, Jude Célestin, stood by.

One woman who spent the night there fled late Sunday morning because of the violence.

“I’m obligated to leave — I’m afraid,” Guerline Pierre, 39, said on the side of the highway as she tried to find a ride to Saint Marc, a port city to the south. “They’re shooting.”

After a night of steady gunfire and threats in Desdunes, voters supporting opposition candidate Mirlande Manigat accused the ruling Unity party of using intimidation to spook voters and rival-party monitors, and staffing the town’s two polls with only their monitors to manipulate the election.

“Unity and a group of bandits kidnapped the vote,” said Murat Odige, 35, adding that he did not plan to vote.

By noon Sunday, calm had been restored to Desdunes but flaming tire barricades in the streets continued to burn as Argentine and Brazilian United Nations troops stood guard outside schoolhouse polls.

“This isn’t an election — it’s a selection that’s happened,” said Amical Jean Baptiste, 51, adding he was too afraid to vote.

A group of about 30 young men stormed a voting precinct in a Tabarre school, raiding the ballots in the classrooms and dumping them in the street.

“If we had proper security, this would not have happened,” said Peteckson Renevie, 23, a supervisor at the voting bureau.

He said only two police officers were assigned to the voting bureau, and they were out maneuvered by the mob. By the time backup police officers arrived, the gravel schoolyard was littered with empty and folded ballots.

Voting there was scrapped — despite the 300 people still waiting in line.

Voters throughout Gonaives were turned away, because their names did not appear on voter lists. They were told to go to other polls, only to find themselves not registered.

Hundreds marched through the dusty streets in protest.

“There seems to be damage control by the electoral council to accept whatever results happen,” said Poitevien Pierre, 47. “We’re not going to allow that to happen. It’s clear that Préval can’t organize elections. … We are supporting any uprising to prevent Préval from organizing elections.”

Also in Gonaives, thugs interrupted voting late Sunday afternoon by hurling rocks over a school wall and into the courtyard, prompting voters and election workers to flee into the street.

Seventeen people — two of the original 19 candidates withdrew although their names remain on the ballot — are vying to lead Haiti as it receives billions in aid to recover from last year’s catastrophic earthquake. With an estimated 1.5 million people still homeless from the tremor, the elections here have never had more at stake.

Some 4.6 million are registered to vote, although official results from the poll are not scheduled to be announced until Dec. 20.

Even Celéstin, the president’s hand-picked heir apparent, experienced first-hand the disorganized voting. When a poll worker at the Petionville high school voting station looked up Célestin’s photo on the voter list to verify his identity, it didn’t match. The road-building chief had to vote by provisional ballot.

He was the only one of the major candidates who did not sign a statement calling for the election to be voided.

At Lycee Bicentenaire, one of Haiti’s largest voting sites, not even poll workers could find their names.

“I decided to vote for change, but they can’t even find my name,” said Jose Dieulaine Saint Louis, 45, a supervisor who planned to vote for Manigat, a former first lady and vice rector at a private university.

Voter lists taped to the center’s walls showed surprisingly few names for some letters of the alphabet, given the hundreds registered there. Only eight people with the surname that began with the letter “K” were registered. Only 31 people with the last name beginning with “O” were listed, and just 54 people with the last name beginning with “M.”

Voters blamed mischief, and the supervisor suspected clerical errors.

By nightfall, poll workers there posted preliminary results that showed about 400 people turned away at each booth, and just a few dozen votes ruled valid.

International observers acknowledged that the vote was marred by late opening of polls, confusion with electoral lists and organizational issues, but they were not prepared to say there was “massive fraud.”

Candidates Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly and Charles Henri Baker took to the streets of Delmas and Petionville singing “we want to vote but they won’t let us.” Joining the two candidates on top of a truck was Haiti-born hip hop artist Wyclef Jean, who said he came to the Karibe hotel to demand free elections — and instead found himself among the protesters.

This article was reported by Miami Herald staff writers Jacqueline Charles in Port-au-Prince, Trenton Daniel in Gonaives and written by Frances Robles in Miami.