Thousands of protesters rampaged through Haiti's capital and other cities today, hurling stones and wrecking property in a wave of unrest against election results they say were rigged by the ruling government coalition.
At least two people were killed in the flaring violence, which appeared to dash international hopes that the UN-backed elections held on November 28th could create a stable new leadership for Haiti, an impoverished nation struggling to recover from a devastating January earthquake.
Port-au-Prince descended into chaos as supporters of popular musician and presidential candidate Michel Martelly, who failed to qualify for an election run-off in results announced by electoral authorities, set up burning barricades of timber, boulders and flaming tires across the city.
Protests in which some government buildings were torched were also reported in other cities in the volatile Caribbean country.
A local mayor in the south coast city of Les Cayes, Jean Mario Altenor, said two people were killed by UN peacekeepers when protesters tried to burn a local elections bureau. A UN police spokesman said he had heard of two reported deaths but had no information about how these had occurred.
Haitian media also reported another person killed in protests in Cap-Haitien in the north.
Haiti's outgoing president Rene Preval, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Canadian foreign minister Lawrence Cannon all appealed for calm, urging election candidates with grievances to address them through the legal channels provided by the country's electoral laws.
"Breaking everything, destroying everything is not going to solve the problem," Mr Preval said in Port-au-Prince.
Police fired tear gas to prevent a stone-throwing mob from reaching the offices of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) in the Petionville district of the capital, witnesses said.
Preliminary results from the turbulent November 28th elections announced late yesterday showed former first lady Mirlande Manigat and Preval's protege, Jude Celestin, going through to the January run-off, with Mr Martelly narrowly in third place and so excluded.
But these results flew in the face of voting returns previously cited by media and Haitian election observers that had shown Ms Manigat and Mr Martelly as the two run-off qualifiers, not government technocrat Mr Celestin. Mr Martelly had already accused Mr Preval and Mr Celestin of trying to rig the results.
The United States, through its embassy in Port-au-Prince, cast doubt on the CEP results late yesterday, saying it was concerned they were "inconsistent with" vote counts observed by "numerous domestic and international observers."
Rebuffing the US statement, Mr Preval said the electoral council was the sole arbiter of election disputes. "Just because people are protesting in the streets, the council can't just change one set of results for another," he said.
UN chief Ban expressed concern about what he called "allegations of fraud." "He also notes that these results are not final and are subject to the provisions stipulated in the electoral law," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Under Haitian electoral law, candidates have 72 hours in which to formally challenge the announced results.
Reuters