Haiti Junta's Choice?

+ History, in Karl Marx's famed dictum, happens twice: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Haitians experienced tragedy in November when soldiers and thugs murdered some 50 people and halted the country's first free presidential elections in 30 years. When the polls opened again last week, the result was closer to farce. The country's four leading populist candidates refused to run, and less than 10% of Haiti's 3 million voters turned out for the election, which was held amid a boycott called by opposition leaders. Election officials examined each vote before dropping it in the box. Ballot stuffing appeared to be widespread.

The big winner seemed to be Leslie Manigat, 57, a former political science professor who fled Haiti during the Duvalier dictatorship and spent 23 years in exile in France and Venezuela. A preliminary tally indicated that Manigat won slightly more than 50% of the vote. Brigadier General Henri Namphy, head of the country's three-man military junta, initially favored another candidate, but Manigat apparently won the last-minute support of the junta's Brigadier General Williams Regala and another top military leader. "Manigat could only get to where he has got through an obscure, rigged situation," says a Haitian social scientist. "He would like only to be President. He has no other agenda."

Candidates Gregoire Eugene and Gerard Philippe-Auguste denounced the preliminary results and threatened to show proof of fraud. The Reagan Administration, which halted $78.7 million in aid to Haiti after last November's bloodbath, acknowledged that the voting was not "fully free and open" but noted that the U.S. "is gratified that these elections took place in an atmosphere free of violence." In the same vein, though officials contended the U.S. will not resume economic and military aid until Haiti becomes more democratic, they indicated they could work with Manigat.

If Manigat is finally declared the winner, he will be sworn in as President on Feb. 7. For Haiti's junta, meanwhile, it was business as usual. Police arrested Opposition Leader Louis Dejoie at Port-au-Prince airport as he returned from criticizing the government on a trip abroad and charged him with fomenting civil war. Dejoie was released two days later after hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside the National Penitentiary, where he was being held.