Haiti heads to polls ... at last

Préval entered the race late, and has kept a low profile throughout. He was the only candidate to turn down an invitation to a US-sponsored debate in December and avoids giving details of his platform, preferring, rather, to convey general promises of fighting corruption and bettering education. "My nature is to do things, not talk," he is fond of repeating. Mr. Bajeux, in response, points out that Préval is not known for having done much during his term. "If [Préval] can tell me what he did, I would be very happy," says Bajeux.

While Préval is not running as a member of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, he nonetheless is opposed by the same business elite that pressed for Aristide's ouster and has won support from many Aristide loyalists in Haiti's slums. At a Préval rally here Saturday, Aristide supporters chanted: "Préval, we can't wait any longer, bring back Aristide." The candidate dodges the question of whether he would allow Aristide to return to Haiti, telling Reuters: "The constitution says no Haitian who left Haiti needs a visa to come back."

Préval, according to Gallup, has 37 percent support. Charles Henri Baker, a successful businessman and an active anti-Aristide voice in the past, is a distant second with 10 percent. Leslie François Manigat, an expert in international relations who led Haiti as president for five months in 1988 before being overthrown in a military coup, has 8 percent. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two vote-getters will face off in a March 19 runoff.

Amid concern that armed groups - connected to political leaders who fear they will lose - will turn violent on election day, schools and public administration buildings have closed for the week. American Airlines, the main international carrier serving Haiti, cancelled all its flights in and out of the country Monday and Tuesday.

UN troops have stepped up patrols, and armored personnel carriers crawl the streets stopping cars to search for weapons. Brazilian Army Lt. Gen. José Elito Carvalho de Siqueira, commander of UN peacekeepers, says a rapid reaction force of soldiers and police will respond to any disturbances.

But still, says Yolette Etienne, an official with the humanitarian agency Oxfam, many people will be too nervous to vote.

In the past two years, hundreds of Haitians have been killed in political and gang violence and nearly 2,000 people have been kidnapped. The UN has lost 13 members to violence and accidents during the deployment and Cité Soleil, a slum in the capital, is a virtual no-go area.

Oxfam said an estimated 210,000 guns now in circulation in Haiti and the long distances many voters will have to travel to the 800 voting centers might discourage people from casting ballots.

Damian Onses-Cardona, spokesman for the UN here, hopes and believes the majority of Haitians will see the opportunity at hand and vote despite misgivings. "Yes, all the problems will still be there the day after the elections, but at least we will have a legitimate government to work with," he says. "There's a sense that this is our last best chance to make Haiti work."

• Ms. Harman is Latin America correspondent for the Monitor and USA Today.

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