Aristide supporters protest election ban in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Supporters of former  Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide marched through  Port-au-Prince yesterday calling for his return from exile  and protesting his party’s exclusion from upcoming elections.

Several thousand protesters joined in the protest march,  which marked Aristide’s rise to power as Haiti’s first  democratically elected president in December 1990.

The demonstrators accused the government of President Rene  Preval, a one-time Aristide ally, of planning a fraudulent  legislative ballot on Feb. 28 and said they would boycott the  vote in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Aristide’s populist Fanmi Lavalas political movement has  been banned from participating in the election on grounds it  failed to meet the legal requirements for registration.

“There will be no election in February, there will be a  selection. What the authorities are planning is really a big  farce,” Dr. Maryse Narcisse, a leading member of Aristide’s  party, told Reuters.

“The president and election officials are the masterminds  behind the plan to exclude the majority of the population from  the vote,” said Narcisse, who spoke as she marched with others  through the streets of Port-au-Prince.