PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Charges of fraud and a chaotic vote count that had workers sweeping up ballots on a Port-au-Prince street threaten the credibility of an election billed as the last hope for Haitian democracy.
An opposition candidate for a local council, meanwhile, was stoned to death, the third victim of election violence.The disorderly collection and counting of ballots from legislative and local elections held Sunday was "most unfortunate," said Ambassador Orlando Marville of the Organization of American States, who is in charge of 200 international observers,
Even as he and other observers insisted the elections were successful despite the problems, officials warned that a prolonged count was vulnerable to tampering.
Elections were held under pressure from the United States, which sent troops to oust a military regime in 1994, and the United Nations, which took over with a peacekeeping and humanitarian mission. The last foreign troops left Haiti in March.
In a joint statement, opposition parties charged that "an electoral coup d'etat" was in the works to give a landslide victory to the Lavalas Family party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is favored to win presidential elections in November.
Bickering over fraud in Haiti's last election, in 1997, led to a feud between the majority party in Parliament and Aristide protege President Rene Preval. Preval disbanded Parliament in 1999 and ruled by decree -- creating an unconstitutional government that Sunday's vote was supposed to fix.
Also at stake is $500 million in foreign aid that has been suspended until Haiti sets up a constitutional government. The money is desperately needed in a country where 65 percent of the work force is unemployed.
Though official results are not expected for days, Aristide's party claimed a massive victory Monday, and thousands of supporters took to the streets to celebrate.
Waving Lavalas placards, hundreds lobbed stones at a group of opposition protesters, who had been demonstrating to protest alleged fraud. Opposition candidate Jean-Michele Olophene was later found dead nearby with his head smashed.
Opposition politicians claimed Aristide loyalists had controlled polling stations and expelled opposition observers.
Some polling stations opened late Sunday, and hundreds never opened at all -- which the opposition claimed was a deliberate attempt to discourage its supporters from voting.
Lavalas spokesman Yvon Neptune, a senate candidate, said the fraud accusations came from "a group of politicians with no roots among the people."
Ballot papers and empty boxes were strewn in the street in front of the central counting station for ballots from Port-au-Prince, said Jean-Paul Poirier, a Canadian consultant to the electoral council. Votes gathered there represented about a tenth of those cast by the 4 million registered voters.
Poirier said he organized a cleanup and thought workers recovered about 90 percent of the materials.
Inside, four officials tried to collate tally sheets from piles of votes 2 feet high. About 29,490 candidates had contested 7,625 posts in the national legislature, mayoral commissions, and local and rural councils.
The head of the center, Rose Delaunay, said election officials without transportation had to carry ballot boxes on their heads in a rainstorm for up to a mile on Monday.
At another center in suburban Delmas, hundreds of ballot boxes and tally sheets were piled up haphazardly and scattered across an open courtyard.
"It's really a disaster," said election official Sanon Miche, 25, clutching to his chest the tally sheets and voter registration ledger that he had brought to be counted.