Aristede's Party Wins Control

The electoral council announced the results Tuesday from the final run-offs in Haiti's drawn-out elections, confirming that the party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide won dominant control of the legislature.

The results came from run-off elections held July 30 for 10 lower-house seats in districts where balloting had been delayed.

Aristide's Lavalas Family party won five of the seats, according to the election council. Opposition candidates took four while the determination of the final seat was postponed because of irregularities.

The latest results mean the Lavalas party now holds 75 of the 83 seats of the lower Chamber of Deputies. The party won 18 of the 19 seats that were up for grabs in the 27-member Senate, the upper house.

The first round of voting was held May 21 and June 11, followed by run-offs on July 9 and July 30.

Parliament has not been in session since January 1999, when Aristide's handpicked successor, President Rene Preval, shut it down to terminate a prolonged power struggle with the majority party.

The Organization of American States observer team has questioned the formula used to determine winners of the parliamentary elections and withdrew its observers before the final round of voting.
According to Haitian election law, a winner must get 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. But in some races, the OAS says, Haiti counted only the top four candidates when calculating vote percentages. In the ten seats in question, that method may have allowed Lavalas party candidates to avoid runoffs.

The United States, Canada and European Union have threatened to withhold aid if the results are not revised.

"Time is running out for the Haitian authorities to find a solution and reaffirm their commitment to a democratic outcome," said Thomas Shannon, the U.S. delegate at an OAS meeting on Haiti in July.

"We and many in the international community would find it difficult to work with a parliament in Haiti that had been elected in a tainted process," he said.

Haitian officials have defended the process, saying Haiti needed to settle its election disputes internally and arguing that the U.S. and OAS knew of the election formulas before the voting but made no complaints.

Haiti's fellow Caribbean nations also felt the vote-counting flaws did not warrant calling into question the whole election. They said the process of strengthening democracy in their poverty-stricken neighbor must be seen in the context of long-term social and economic development.

Aristide was overthrown in 1991 by a military coup that resulted in a reign of terror that ended when the United States sent 20,000 troops to restore him in 1994.

Aristide, constitutionally barred from consecutive terms in office, stepped down in 1996 and is a favorite to win a re-election bid in November.

Aristide's party also has won 80 percent of city halls and a majority of urban and rural assemblies.