PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Several hundred protesters clashed with riot police in Haiti’s capital yesterday to demand that outgoing President Rene Preval leave office immediately as the country moved toward a deciding presidential run-off vote.
The police, backed by United Nations peacekeepers who were standing by, fired shots in the air and tear gas canisters to keep the chanting, stone-throwing demonstrators back from the presidential palace in central Champs de Mars square in Port-au-Prince. “Preval must go,” the demonstrators yelled.
Tear gas canisters fell into a crowded tent camp in the square housing thousands of survivors from Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, and the stinging smoke sent women and children fleeing, the women howling angrily in protest.
A deciding second round of Haiti’s presidential election is scheduled to be held on March 20 to choose a successor to Preval, whose five-year mandate nominally ends today Feb. 7 in the poor, earthquake-battered Caribbean nation.
A chaotic first round of U.N.-backed presidential and legislative elections held on Nov. 28 led to weeks of fraud allegations and sporadic protests, raising fears prolonged political unrest could jeopardize delivery of billions of dollars of post-quake reconstruction aid.
Preval, who could not stand for another consecutive term, has parliament approval to stay on if necessary until May 14 so he can hand over to an elected successor, but some opponents want him to step down in favor of a provisional government.
“Today at noon, Preval’s mandate expires. He will no longer be the constitutional president. We are going to block the whole country to make him go,” said Michel Frederick, 40, one of the demonstrators.
The protesters battled with dozens of riot police, setting tires and piles of garbage ablaze and trying to break through crash barriers in front of the quake-damaged white palace. The protesters also threw stones at U.N. vehicles.
The U.N.’s top official in Haiti, Edmond Mulet, who heads the more than 12,000-strong peacekeeping mission there, told local media the international community was in favor of Preval staying on to hand over to a successor to be legally elected in the run-off vote.
“Rene Preval can and should stay in office,” Le Nouvelliste newspaper quoted Mulet as saying. Preval’s formal assumption of the presidency was delayed five years ago, and this meant that under the constitution he could stay on to May 14 to fully complete a five-year term.
