Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Leading presidential candidate Rene Preval said Tuesday that “gross errors and probably gigantic fraud” marred last week’s elections but he urged supporters to protest peacefully, a day after at least one person was killed in violent demonstrations.
Preval, who had just under 49 percent of the vote with most ballots counted, made the comments hours after a U.N. helicopter brought him to the capital from his rural home Monday as supporters accusing election officials of manipulating results stormed a luxury hotel in Port-au-Prince.
“We want the will of the Haiti people to be respected,” Preval said at a news conference. “I ask the Haitian people … to be mature, to be responsible, to be nonviolent.
“We are not the party of violence,” Preval said. “On the contrary, we are victims of violence by others,” adding that his supporters have been attacked in the cities of Gonaives and St. Marc.
Sitting on a lawn chair on the grass at his gated home in the Petionville neighborhood, he urged followers to “respect people’s belongings” and to be on guard against those who try to foment violence.
U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst has said there has been no evidence of fraud in the elections.
“If he believes there have been irregularities, he has the right to request an investigation,” Wimhurst told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Preval, a former protege of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, enjoys wide support among Haiti’s poor majority. It was uncertain, however, whether he would get the 50 percent total needed to win outright and avoid a second round of voting.
Of the 2.2 million ballots cast, about 125,000 ballots have been declared invalid because of irregularities, raising suspicion among Preval supporters that polling officials were rigging the election.
