Interim Haiti leader seeks peaceful vote
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-20 11:36

Despite bouts of violence and a climate bordering on chaos, elections in November should return the long-troubled Caribbean nation of Haiti to democracy, the country's interim president said Monday, AP reported.

Still, he said, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere will need international help "to emerge from the miasma of underdevelopment, extreme poverty and squalor ... (imposed under) the bedrock of all dictatorships."

President Boniface Alexandre also appealed to nearby nations where Haitians have sought refuge to resolve tensions that have led to attacks.

He appeared to be referring to neighboring Dominican Republic, where months of tensions and deportations of thousands of Haitians reached new heights last month when three Haitian immigrants were burned alive.

Nov. 6 elections would replace Haiti's first democratically elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted in a February 2004 rebellion. The United States and France sent troops to restore order and installed an interim government now supported by a U.N. peacekeeping force.

"The elections will be completely inclusive, all sectors and all political parties will be included in the vote," Alexandre told the assembly.

But critics say that hundreds of Aristide supporters and officials have been detained for months and the candidate of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, was detained July 21 and officials have refused to register him as a presidential candidate, even though he has not been charged.

"I continue to be hopeful that the election campaign will take place in a peaceful climate," Alexandre said. "For months now the country has been living in a climate bordering on chaos. Armed gangs have been holding a number of parts of the capital hostage."

Hundreds of people have died since Aristide militants and armed gangs loyal to the ousted leader stepped up a campaign to demand his return from exile in South Africa.

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