Furious protests greet Haiti election results

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Furious supporters of an apparently eliminated candidate set fires and manned barricades in the streets of Haiti's capital Wednesday after officials announced that government protege Jude Celestin and former first lady Mirlande Manigat would advance to a runoff in presidential elections.

The results announced late Tuesday were immediately questioned at home and abroad, threatening more unrest for a country wracked by a cholera epidemic and still recovering from a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

Popular carnival singer Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly trailed Celestin by about 6,800 votes — less than 1 percent, according to the results released by Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council.

His supporters immediately protested, though official election observers said a third candidate might be included in a Jan. 16 runoff if the electoral council decides the first-round vote was close enough, even if the constitutionality of such a move would be debatable.

An appeals period runs through Dec. 10, with final results expected to be announced around Dec. 20.

Martelly supporters set up flaming barricades near the Petionville restaurant where the tallies were announced and threw rocks at people passing nearby. Gunshots rang out and an Associated Press journalist was robbed.

"If they don't give us Martelly and Manigat (in the second round), Haiti will be on fire," said a protester, Erick Jean. "We're still living under tents and Celestin wastes money on election posters."

Protests surged again as the sun rose over Port-au-Prince. The black smoke of burning barricades filled the air in areas where Martelly's support is strongest, including Petionville and Delmas. Thousands were on the streets, singing political songs and chanting for "Micky."

Vehicles were damaged by rocks and items were reportedly stolen from stores. Foreign aid workers complained that Haitian national police were slow to respond and that many officers refused to report to duty following the election results.

American Airlines halted flights in and out of the Haitian capital because airport employees were unable to get to work Wednesday because of demonstrations, spokeswoman Martha Pantin said.

Violent disturbances were also reported in Cap-Haitien as well as the southern city of Les Cayes, where residents said government buildings had been attacked and set on fire.

Martelly had said before results were released that he believed he would win, and would not accept a spot in a runoff in which Celestin is present. Some of his staffers had praised the protests on Twitter late Tuesday.

The Nov. 28 election was plagued by allegations of fraud. Thousands of voters were disenfranchised by confusion on the rolls and there were many reported incidents of ballot-stuffing, violence and intimidation confirmed by international observers.

Turnout was low according to the preliminary results, as just over a million people cast accepted ballots out of some 4.7 million registered voters. It is not known how many ballots were thrown out for fraud.

Officials acknowledged the rolls were both bloated and incomplete, with hundreds of thousands of earthquake dead still registered and many living voters waiting for ID cards. In the last days of counting, tabulators had to sort out clearly fraudulent tally sheets.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the problems were worse than originally reported. But the U.N. peacekeepers and the joint Organization of American States-Caribbean Community observer mission said the problems did not invalidate the vote.

Much of the concern centered around conflicts between the announced results and those reported recently by a local election monitoring group financed by the European Union — the National Observation Council — which said that Celestin, who is backed by outgoing President Rene Preval, would be eliminated.

"The Government of the United States is concerned by the Provisional Electoral Council's announcement of preliminary results ... that are inconsistent with the published results of the National Election Observation Council" as well as U.S. observers and vote counts monitored by domestic and international observers, the U.S. Embassy said in an e-mailed statement.

There was no immediate statement from U.N. peacekeepers Tuesday night or Wednesday.

The chief observer with the OAS-Caricom mission, Colin Granderson, appealed for patience.

"Remember that the results are only preliminary results," Granderson told AP. "For all candidates who believe there were irregularities or fraud, there are recourses provided by the electoral law."

Granderson said before the results were announced that officials could consider putting a third candidate in the runoff if the vote is nearly tied.

Merchants and residents had braced for rioting by supporters of the losing candidates before the results were announced on Tuesday evening, covering market stalls and jamming streets to rush home.

The protests began as soon as news of the results hit the streets. Orange fires burned on the hills above the capital, white smoke rising into the dim electric light. Rocks were thrown at the few passing cars and guns were fired in the air. The shouts of people — drunken, reveling, angry and scared — rang across barricaded streets.

Manigat, a 70-year-old law professor, is the wife of former Haitian president Leslie Manigat who served briefly in the late 1980s after a much-criticized election before being deposed by a coup. Her supporters include a powerful senator who organized