Haitians face crucial vote

Supporters out in force for leading party Family Lavalas

By Peter Greste in Port au Prince

Haitians are due to go to the polls on Sunday in an election to install the country's first functioning government in three years.

There had been fears that a wave of pre-election violence would scupper the vote which has already been postponed three times over the past seven months.

But international observers and the local electoral commission say all is now ready for the vote.

Haiti does not look much like a country about to face one of the most important elections of its history.

Over four million people applied for voting cards

Only a few campaign posters and banners litter the capital, while in the provincial town there is barely a political sticker in sight.

The key reason is that the polling day was originally scheduled for last November after the President, Rene Preval, suspended parliament in a dispute with the opposition.

But the electoral council organising the vote postponed it three times - exhausting the resources of the already thinly stretched political parties.

The opposition accused the government of creating the obstacles so it could extend its hold on power.

The council blamed massive logistical problems for the delays. In the voter registration process the council reckoned on issuing three million identity cards, more than four million people applied.

Only a few campaign posters litter the capital

Some observers say that suggests there will be a high turn-out of voters fed up with the political chaos and ready for change.

But the turn-out depends very much on how the early voting proceeds.

Many say they will wait to see if all is going peacefully before they decide to venture into the streets.

Many have been worried by a wave of pre-election violence that left at least a dozen political figures dead, eleven of them linked to the opposition.

'Vital' poll

Whatever the numbers that do finally vote, foreign observers like Ambassador Orlando Marville, from the Organisation of American States, say it is vital that these elections work.

If they do the country gets its first functioning government in three years and access to millions of dollars in foreign aid.

If they do not, the country faces deepening chaos and another wave of boat people.