Haiti on brink of turmoil after electoral chaos

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti // Haitians entered election day hoping for the best. Within hours, ballot boxes were ripped to pieces, protesters were on the streets and nearly every presidential hopeful was united against the government.

Already reeling from a catastrophic earthquake, one of the world's poorest economies, storms, a deadly cholera epidemic and unrest over UN peacekeepers, the Caribbean nation could now be on the edge of political turmoil.

Voting ended up uniting most of the top presidential candidates against the president's heir apparent - Jude Celestin, head of the state-run construction company and beneficiary of a well-financed campaign.

Allegations ranging from outright fraud to polling-place disorganisation that disenfranchised many Haitians nearly brought the election to a halt. Polling places opened late, voters could not find their names on lists, and some polling places were ransacked by thugs.

The United Nations cited "numerous incidents that marred the elections." Observers from the Organization of American States canceled an afternoon news conference, releasing a statement hours later that they were "in the process of evaluating and analyzing the information gathered."

The discontent boiled into a potential political crisis at about 2p., when 12 of the 19 presidential candidates - including nearly every major contender - gathered in a hotel ballroom to join hands, denounce President Rene Preval and call for the election to be cancelled.

"It is clear that the government of Rene Preval, in agreement with the (electoral council), is putting into execution the plan hatched to tamper with the elections ... with the help of the official political party and its candidate, Jude Celestin," independent candidate Anne Marie Josette Bijou read aloud.

The other candidates joined the crowd in applause. The crowd, which had burst into Haiti's national anthem when the candidates arrived, chanted "Arrest Preval!"

Protesters took to the streets, and demonstrations demanding the balloted be nullified stretched into the night. Crowds surged through the streets carrying tree branches and campaign posters, decrying the vote and jubilantly claiming victory for their candidates.

The Haitian government had no immediate response to the criticism.

But the electoral council held an evening news conference to say the candidates' protest had no legal weight. It said there had been irregularities at only 56 of nearly 1,500 voting centers, but did not explain how it arrived at that figure.