Gunfire erupts during Haiti election protest

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Gunfire erupted Monday during protests over election results in Haiti and at least one supporter of leading presidential candidate Rene Preval was killed. Witnesses said U.N. peacekeepers opened fire on the crowd, but a U.N. spokesman denied that \naccusation.\nThe protests erupted amid increasing anger at vote counts from Tuesday's elections showing that Preval, a former president and one-time protege of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, might have fallen short of the 50 percent needed to win outright and avoid a runoff.\nWitnesses said Jordanian U.N. peacekeepers opened fire on them, killing two and wounding four.\nDavid Wimhurst, a U.N. spokesman in Haiti, denied in a phone interview that blue-helmeted peacekeepers who were deployed across the capital opened fire.\nAssociated Press journalists saw the body of a man in the street in the Tabarre neighborhood. He was wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt bearing an image of Preval. The body of the second victim was not at the scene.\n"We were peacefully protesting when the U.N. started shooting. There were a lot of shots. Everybody ran," said Walrick Michel, 22, one of the pro-Preval protesters.\nHundreds of screaming demonstrators elsewhere stormed past U.N. peacekeepers into an upscale hotel in the hills above Port-au-Prince and helicopters landed on the roof to evacuate guests, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu.\nAt church services Sunday, South Africa appealed for calm as election results trickled in. No violence was reported at the Montana hotel, where election officials announced results of Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary elections.\nThe electoral council abruptly canceled a press conference in the hotel Sunday evening.\nProtesters have alleged the electoral commission is manipulating the vote count to prevent Preval from winning a first-round victory in this battered and poor Caribbean nation.\nPreval supporters erected roadblocks throughout Port-au-Prince, paralyzing the capital.\nSome barricades made of old tires were set ablaze, sending plumes of acrid black smoke into the sky. Protesters let only journalists and Red Cross vehicles pass.\nWith some 90 percent of the votes counted, Preval was leading with 48.7 percent of the vote, Haiti's electoral council said on its Web site. His nearest opponent was Leslie Manigat, another former president, who had 11.8 percent.\nBut of the 2.2 million ballots cast, about 125,000 ballots have been declared invalid because of irregularities, raising suspicion among Preval supporters that polling officials are trying to steal the election.\nAnother 4 percent of the ballots were blank but were still added into the total, making it harder for Preval to obtain the 50 percent plus one vote needed.\nThrongs of Preval supporters poured into the streets, chanting angry allegations of fraud, after two members of Haiti's electoral council questioned the counting procedures.\nElectoral council member Pierre Richard Duchemin said he was being denied access to information about the tabulation process and called for an investigation.\n"According to me, there's a certain level of manipulation," Duchemin told The Associated Press, adding "there is an effort to stop people from asking questions."\nEarlier Monday, Preval supporters blew horns and pounded drums outside the electoral center, denouncing Jacques \nBernard, director-general of the nine-member electoral council, as a "thief."\n"He doesn't know how to count," they chanted as police held them off with rifles and shotguns.\nBernard has denied accusations that the council voided many votes for Preval.\nPatrick Fequiere, who is also on the nine-member electoral council, said on local radio that Bernard was releasing results without notifying other council members, who did not know where Bernard was obtaining his information.\nThe elections will replace an interim government installed after Aristide was ousted in a bloody rebellion two years ago.\nA popularly elected government with a clear mandate from the voters was seen as crucial to avoiding a political and economic meltdown in the western hemisphere's poorest nation, where gangs have gone on kidnapping sprees and many factories have closed for lack of security.\nJean-Henoc Faroul, president of an electoral district with 400,000 voters northeast of the capital, accused the electoral commission of trying to force a runoff, saying ballot tally sheets from Preval strongholds have vanished.\n"The electoral council is trying to do what it can to diminish the percentage of Preval so it goes to a second round," said Faroul, who openly supports Preval's candidacy.\nAssociated Press writer Andrew Selsky in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.