Six wounded in violence over disputed elections

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Supporters of a losing mayoral candidate in Haiti went on a rampage in a remote provincial town, wounding 12 people and setting houses ablaze, a radio report said Friday.

In the violence Thursday in Anse-d'Hainault, a coastal town of 29,000 on the tip of Haiti's southern peninsula, backers of losing mayor Georges Simon ransacked Radio Rebelle, a community radio station, and the home of its owner, Orelien Joachim, Radio Vision 2000 reported.

The crowds also set fire to the house of Mayor-elect Necuel Belcombe and wounded 12 people, who were hospitalized. In all six houses were set ablaze.

Belcombe ran under the banner of the five-party opposition coalition known as Space for Concord in the June 11 election, the radio said.

Simon, the runner-up and outgoing mayor, was from the left-leaning Effort at Solidarity to Build a National Popular Alternative, which was allied with former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party.

''Simon's victory had already been proclaimed when Wednesday, on the basis of falsified tally sheets, the district election bureau declared he had lost,'' party leader Kely Bastien told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

''That is what provoked the rage of his supporters,'' he said.

On Sunday, partisans of an independent mayoral candidate clashed with supporters of the winning candidate from Aristide's Lavalas Family party on Ile-a-Vache, an island of 12,000 people off Haiti's southern coast.

Two Aristide party members were killed and three houses were burned down.

Haiti has nine electoral districts. Eight of them held their local and legislative elections on May 21, and the district of Grand'-Anse, which includes the town of Anse-d'Hainault, held its elections June 11.

Opposition parties charge that the counting in the parliament and local elections was skewed to ensure a massive victory for Aristide, who is favored to win the November presidential election.

The international community, including the United Nations and the United States, have backed allegations that the counting was irregular.

A second round of balloting is set for Sunday despite a boycott by almost all opposition parties and protests by the international community.

Official results from the first round show Lavalas winning 18 of l9 contested seats in the 27-seat Senate and 29 seats in the 83-member House of Deputies.

Since Aristide's party is leading in most of the 54 races to be held Sunday, it is expected to win control of both houses of Parliament.