By Peter Granitz
PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haitians began voting on Sunday in landmark elections for president, as well as a parliament that has sat empty for 10 months, polls that officials hope will cement democracy in the Western hemisphere's poorest country.
More than five million registered voters are choosing from 54 presidential candidates who appear on the crammed ballot with facial images, party logos and an accompanying party number to help a vast illiterate population.
If all goes smoothly it will be first time in Haiti's rocky political history that three democratic elections have been held in succession without interruption by fraud or armed rebellion.
The successor to President Michel Martelly next February is expected to be one of two candidates, Jovenel Moïse, owner of a banana exporting business in the north of the country, and Jude Célestin, a Swiss-educated mechanical engineer who previously headed a government construction agency.
Moïse, 37, represents the ruling Parti Haitien Tet Kale (Haitian Party of Bald Heads) named after Martelly's famously smooth scalp.
He is running neck and neck in polls with Célestin, 53, who heads the LAPEH Party (Alternative League for Progress and Emancipation of Haiti).
A runoff for the presidential race between the top two candidates is scheduled for Dec. 27.
Martelly, a popular singer, shook up the political order with his election victory in 2011 as the country was still reeling from a devastating earthquake. But critics say he failed to halt to corruption and political infighting.
The Caribbean nation of about 10 million people has struggled to build a stable democracy ever since the overthrow of the dictatorship of the Duvalier family, which led Haiti from 1957 to 1986, and ensuing military coups and election fraud.
Security is being tightened after violence by gangs of rival political activists disrupted voting in August during the first round of legislative elections.
Haiti's 12,000 strong National Police lacks resources and a longstanding U.N. security force in Haiti is also at its lowest level in a decade, down to 5,000 police and military personnel.
Haiti's parliament dissolved in January after scheduled legislative elections in 2011 and 2014 were canceled and terms ran out on sitting members.
The sheer number of candidates could be a recipe for chaos with more than 100 political accredited parties entitled to have a poll watcher at every polling center.
Many voters complain the poll watchers are nothing more than paid thugs sent to intimidate voters into selecting certain candidates.
Reuters
