Election Review Ordered by the Haitian Government

The Haitian interim government demanded for a review of the election result, after Rene Preval, the leading presidential candidate, accused the system of gigantic fraud which kept him from winning the elections in the first round, stating that they not correspond with the reality.

The appearance of Preval, president of Haiti in 1996 - 2001, calmed the protestors, urging them to remove road blocks installed the day before and inspiring them to more peaceful protests.

A commission, formed out of the president's party, Preval's party and the electoral council, will conduct the review and the results will be released depending on their nature. A local television stations presented images of ballots thrown out, all of them marked for Preval. U.N. official, David Wimhurst, said that the ballots could come for the polling stations destroyed by people tired of waiting in line or by some political parties, but still they have no clear evidence of this.

The polling results issued on Monday had 48.76 of the votes, with 90% of the ballots counted, the minimum for avoiding a second election being 50% plus one of the votes. The U.E. the Canadian observers declined to make any comments regarding the election because of the fragile situation.

The protests on Monday ended with a death. Witnesses declared that U.N. peacekeepers opened fire, thing which was eventually confirmed by Wimhurst, but specified that they fired in the air. About 125,000 of the ballots were declared invalid, which startled even more Preval's supporters.