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Port-au-Prince. Haitians voted on Sunday for lawmakers and a new president in an election marred by violence and concerns about fraud, while a cholera epidemic ate away at the earthquake-ravaged country.

Voters will choose a successor to President Rene Preval, who is not running for re-election, as well as 11 of the country’s 30 senators and all 99 parliamentary deputies in the landmark vote.

Authorities banned motorbike traffic and alcohol sales on the day of the election as extra security measures.

Sunday “is an important day for the country’s future,” Preval said in a broadcast, urging voters to act with “order and discipline so election day goes off well and Haiti can move forward.”

On Saturday in the Petionville suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince, armed peacekeepers stood guard as boxes of ballots were unloaded from a United Nations convoy.

People also lined up to obtain national identity cards, which allow individuals to vote.

“I hope they will give me my card. My duty is to vote to help my country after the earthquake and cholera,” said 19-year-old Josue Phanon.

More than 4.7 million people are eligible to take part in the election, the results of which are to be made public starting Dec. 5, with the official tally to be announced on Dec. 20.

The new president will lead the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, a nation of around 10 million people where 80 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day.

Front-runners among the 18 candidates include Jude Celestin, an engineer supported by Preval; academic and former first lady Mirlande Manigat; and Michel Martelly, a popular singer widely known as “Sweet Micky.”

The election comes as Haiti battles a cholera outbreak that has claimed at least 1,648 lives.

It is also the first election since a devastating 7-magnitude earthquake in January killed more than 250,000 people.

The campaigning has occasionally turned violent, with at least one person killed and several wounded when gunmen opened fire on a rally for Martelly late on Friday.

Two people were shot dead earlier in the week in Beaumont, a small town in southwestern Haiti, when supporters of Celestin and candidate Charles Henri Baker squared off with firearms, rocks and bottles.

The campaigning has also been marred by riots in the northern city of Cap-Haitien against UN peacekeepers, accused of introducing the cholera.

Despite the violence, Haitians in recent days have waited in lines snaking through the capital’s tent camps in order to register.

The latest opinion poll gave an eight-point lead to Manigat, who pushed for education and promised a break from the corruption-tainted past administrations.

Celestin, who rose to prominence when Preval tasked him with leading road-clearing and rebuilding efforts after the earthquake, has struggled to shake off the image of being too close to the unpopular president.

But he enjoys the support of the ruling party and smiles down from posters on nearly every street corner in the capital.

On Friday, Manigat accused Celestin’s backers of hoarding 500,000 fake ballots and warned that widespread fraud could derail her candidacy. Martelly also alleged “massive fraud” on Friday, blaming officials close to Manigat and Celestin.

No candidate is expected to win the 50 percent of votes needed for an outright victory. The two front-runners are expected to make it through to a Jan. 16 runoff, but nothing is certain in Haitian politics.


Agence France-Presse