Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Supporters of Haitian presidential candidate Rene Preval march during a campaign rally in the seaside slum of Cite-Soleil in Port-au-Prince, yesterday. Two former presidents, a wealthy businessman and an ex-rebel are among three dozen presidential candidates in elections being staged under the protection of UN peacekeepers. Polls show Rene Preval, who led Haiti from 1996-2001 is the front-runner ahead of tomorrow's vote. (Photo: AP)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Stray bullets whizzing through slums, kidnappings, suffocating poverty and a dying economy - Haitians have no shortage of things they'd like to change about their troubled country.

They'll have their say tomorrow in long-delayed elections aimed at restoring Haiti's elusive democracy, two years after a bloody revolt ousted elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is in exile in South Africa.

Two former presidents, a wealthy businessman and an ex-rebel are among three dozen presidential candidates running in the election, which is being held under the protection of UN peacekeepers and is deemed crucial to lifting Haiti from its deepening cycle of misery and doom.

"The future of Haiti is at stake," the top US diplomat in Haiti, Tim Carney, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"It's long past time that Haiti move into the modern world."
Rene Preval, an agronomist who led Haiti from 1996 to 2001 and is the only elected Haitian president to ever finish his term, is the front-runner, according to opinion polls. If no one wins a majority, a March 19 runoff will be held between the top two finishers. Voters will also choose among hundreds of candidates to fill 129 legislative seats.

The son of a former government official, Preval has vowed to crack down on criminals blamed for spreading terror in the capital, Port-au-Prince. But the shy, soft-spoken candidate is coy on whether he'd welcome back his one-time ally, the exiled Aristide.

Much of the gritty capital was plunged into chaos after Aristide, a former slum priest and Haiti's first democratically elected president, left the island amid a rebel uprising in February 2004.

Kidnappers now roam Port-au-Prince snatching victims for ransom, and gunfire still crackles daily inside squalid, densely populated slums where well-armed street gangs clash with the blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers.

Business leaders have called on peacekeepers to crack down on the gangs, but Preval says he wants to start a dialogue with the gangsters, some of whom are allegedly aligned with Aristide.

"There's no military solution" to the problem, Preval told the AP. "We must negotiate."

Experts say elections are vital to improving life in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. Elections - if deemed free and fair, and if the results are accepted by the candidates as well as ordinary Haitians - could embolden rich nations to increase aid money needed to rebuild Haiti's shattered infrastructure and spur investment.

Fears of election-day violence loom heavy among Haitians who remember a 1987 bloodbath in which soldiers opened fire on voters waiting to cast ballots in the Caribbean nation's first free elections. Some Haitians say the chance to choose a new government isn't worth the risk.

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS

Pepper Pot