Page 12 - Aruba Today

A12

WORLD NEWSMonday 26 October 2015

At Press Time:

Polarized Haiti votes in tense presidential election

Electoral officials, right, try to calm a voter who says his name is not on the voters list during elec- 70 arrests. Officials had no Whoever wins the almost
tions in the Petion-Ville suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2015. The country is hold- immediate estimate of na- inevitable Dec. 27 presi-
ing the first-round presidential vote Sunday along with balloting for numerous legislative races tional voter turnout. dential runoff will face nu-
and local offices. Celso Amorim, chief of the merous challenges, includ-
Organization of American ing spurring Haiti’s chroni-
(AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo) States’ 125-member ob- cally sputtering economy
server mission, offered few and weaning it off depen-
DAVID McFADDEN and contradictory, and no plained Varnel Polycard, a specifics as polls closed but dence on foreign aid do-
DANICA COTO election results were ex- vendor of phone chargers said Haiti appeared to be nors, who are largely fund-
Associated Press pected for at least 10 days. who walked away fuming. “moving in the right direc- ing this year’s roughly $70
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) Voting was relatively order- Each of Haiti’s more than tion.” million three-round elector-
— Haitians faced lengthy ly across the nation of some 120 parties was allowed While the gritty district of al process.
ballots featuring 54 presi- 10 million people, although to send monitors to poll- Cite Soleil suffered from Among the best-known
dential hopefuls and a slew there was some confusion ing places, where they got pre-election violence, it names on the presidential
of legislative and munici- and logistical problems. their own voting done ear- appeared to have the ballot was Jude Celestin, a
pal candidates Sunday as At a voting center in Port- ly. At a polling center in the busiest voting center in the former head of the state-
they selected leaders they au-Prince’s Martissant slum, Petionville suburb of Port- Port-au-Prince area. run construction company
hope can lift the nation out an elections supervisor re- au-Prince, monitors shoved “Nothing can scare me who was the government-
of chronic poverty and tur- peatedly yelled at dozens one another in a voting line from trying to see my coun- backed candidate in the
bulence. of people trying to force and masked police gave try develop and see if 2010 race. That time, he
The presidential field was their way in. “No voting two the unruliest partisans in line Haiti can get better for my was eliminated from a
so crowded and confusing times!” People shouted short zaps with a Taser. grandchildren,” Rosianne runoff after his reported
that there was little clarity back that they were be- But balloting was generally Jean said after casting her second-place finish was
about who might be lead- ing prevented from voting tranquil in many parts of votes at a school in the challenged by foreign ob-
ing as voting wrapped up once. the country, though there deeply poor area of shacks servers who complained of
in late afternoon. Pre-elec- “I’m here to vote, and they were sporadic reports of and garbage-lined canals. irregularities.
tion polls were unreliable are trying to stop me,” com- irregularities and roughly The continuing appeal Others included outgoing
of former President Jean- President Michel Martelly’s
Bertrand Aristide was on pick, Jovenel Moise, a po-
display as over 1,500 peo- litical newcomer who has
ple greeted him when he called for restoration of
arrived at a voting cen- Haiti’s army and pledges
ter near his home, many to expand the agriculture
chanting “Aristide is our sector, and Jean-Charles,
blood.” The former leader a sharp critic of Martelly
has mostly been living qui- who brands himself the
etly since returning to Haiti voice for Haiti’s poor and
after seven years in exile disenfranchised.
following his 2004 ouster but It is more than 5½ years
has lately urged support for since Haiti suffered an
the candidate of the party earthquake that was one
he founded decades ago, of the worst natural di-
Fanmi Lavalas. sasters of modern times.
He accompanied party Roughly 5.8 million voters
candidate Maryse Narcisse registered to cast ballots
to vote, but some Aristide for the next president, 129
loyalists in the crowd said lawmakers and a slew of
they were backing ex-Sen. local offices.
Moise Jean-Charles.