Haiti election narrative: a case of fast editing. posted by Richard Seymour

11 February - The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, hailed the election as a
"significant step forward". The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice,
called on all Haitian citizens to recognise the result.

Charles Arthur, director of the Haiti Support Group, said: "Despite the poor
organisation of the voting process, it does seem as though most people were
eventually able to cast their votes."

...

12 February - Thousands of chanting supporters of presidential candidate René
Préval marched from a seaside slum past the national palace in a victory
celebration Saturday as electoral officials continued counting ballots that have
given Préval a wide lead. The former president had 50.3 percent of 1.3 million
valid votes counted so far, with the other candidates far behind, Haiti's
election council said. The winning candidate needs 50 percent plus one vote to
avoid a March runoff with the second-place finisher. Nearly 1.8 million votes
were cast, U.N. officials said.

...

12 February - In Cité Soleil, Haiti's largest slum and an Aristide
stronghold, demonstrators ran through the streets past shanties and open sewers,
waving tree branches and shouting, "Préval is our president!" They demanded a
speedier vote count. Demonstrators complained about Préval's shrinking lead. He
held 61 percent after the first results were released on Thursday and seemed headed toward a first-round victory. But his total dropped on Friday to 50.3 percent
and to less than half on Saturday, leading some to believe elections
officials were trying to fix the vote. About 7.6 percent of the ballots counted
so far were rejected. In some places, the number was much higher. In the southern
Nippes department, for example, 14.1 percent of ballots were spoiled, and in the
Centre department, 12.9 percent. "It is suspect," said Patrick Fequière, an
electoral council member who often finds himself at odds with other members.
"It should be investigated."

...

12 February - According to the partial results published by the Provisional
Electoral Council, Préval has obtained 49.10% of 75.81% of the valid votes cast
and so far counted, and therefore does not at the moment have enough votes to
be elected on the first round. His nearest challengers at present are Leslie
Manigat of the Rassemblement des Démocrates Nationaux Progressistes (RDNP),
who has 11.72%, and the independent candidate, Charles Baker, with 8.02%.
(AlterPresse)

...

13 February - In results that critics slammed as fraudulent, René Préval, a
former president and champion of the poor who is the front-runner in key
presidential elections here, appeared last night to have lost the majority he
needs to avoid a runoff with his closest rival. Thousands of enraged, slum-dwelling
Préval supporters took to the streets of this capital city to blow horns and
bang drums in protest as they shouted, "Préval on the first round!" Two members
of the provisional electoral council overseeing the count from Tuesday's vote
said they believed the results were being manipulated.

On Thursday night, when it was clear that Rene Preval was getting something over 60% of the votes in the UN organised Haitian election, one of his opponents, the man coming second with about 12% of the votes was a former stand-in president, Leslie Manigat.

Manigat, recognising reality, said that the trend suggested that Preval had swept the board and that there might be no need for a runoff.

The candidate running third, a millionaire sweatshop owner named Charles Henri Baker, had a different opinion. Mr Baker, with about 6% of the vote,one tenth of Preval's and half as many as Manigat's, was promising to launch an election petition, charging fraud, hoping to overturn the results.

"According to me, there's a certain level of manipulation," Pierre Richard Duchemin, an electoral council member, told The Associated Press, adding that "there is an effort to stop people from asking questions" about the counting process.
Duchemin said Sunday he needed access to tallies of vote counts in hopes of learning who was behind the alleged manipulation. He called for an investigation.