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Aristide party threatents to boycott
Haiti poll
22
Aug 2005 22:52:36 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joseph Guyler Delva
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti,
Aug 22 (Reuters) - The party of ousted Haitian president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide said on Monday it would boycott
elections later this year if a parish priest it views as
its likely presidential candidate is not released from
jail.
Gerald Gilles, a leader
of a moderate faction of Haiti's leading opposition
party, the Lavalas Family, said Father Gerard Jean-Juste
was the most popular figure in the party. Jean-Juste was
jailed a month ago by the interim Haitian government in
connection with the murder of a journalist.
"After several
consultations, the masses that we represent and the base
of the party claim Father Jean-Juste as their
presidential candidate. So he will be our
candidate," Gilles told Reuters.
"We say loud and
clear (that) we'll boycott the elections if Jean-Juste,
and many other political prisoners that are potential
candidates for our party, are not released."
Jean-Juste, a fiery
orator who has also lived in the United States and is
well known in Miami for defending Haitian immigrants'
rights, has not indicated if he would run in the
elections scheduled for later this year to restore
democracy to the poor Caribbean country.
The priest has instead
insisted that Aristide be allowed to return before
Lavalas take part in the elections. Aristide, himself a
former priest, was ousted in February 2004 after an
armed revolt and amid accusations of corruption and
despotism.
Haiti has been torn by
continuing political and criminal violence since
Aristide's ouster, despite the presence of more than
7,000 Brazilian-led U.N. troops and international
police.
Jean-Juste was arrested
on July 21 on allegations he had played a role in the
kidnapping and the killing on July 14 of journalist
Jacques Roche.
The priest has rejected
the accusations and said he was in Miami when the crime
was committed. Like other senior Lavalas figures who
have been put in prison by the interim government of
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, Jean-Juste says the
accusations are politically motivated.
Gilles and other leaders
of a moderate wing of Lavalas angered many party
supporters when they registered Lavalas for the
elections, scheduled for November.
But party officials said
they had made an effort to unify Lavalas and the
decision by moderates to designate Jean-Juste as their
likely presidential candidate was welcomed by more
radical members. The United Nations has also urged
Lavalas to participate in the election.
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