Mob mandate

Haiti | Evidence of election fraud sets off violent pro-Preval protests in Port-au-Prince, but protesters turn jubilant with surprise victory | John Dawson

When Haitians burn tires in the streets, it's usually out of frustration with the establishment. But the looting, burning, and anger that collected in Port-au-Prince for over a week following Feb. 7 general elections—resulting in at least one man dead and dozens injured—was actually in support of the frontrunner, one-time president Rene Preval, a one-time ally to despised former president Jean Bertrand Aristide.

When Mr. Preval, the 63-year-old independent candidate, failed to win an out-and-out majority, he charged that "massive fraud or gross errors stain the [electoral] process." Working-class and poor Haitians took to the streets, contending that Mr. Preval was robbed of votes. They feared that a runoff election next month could lead to the kind of civil strife that convulsed the country two years ago before Mr. Aristide fled to exile in South Africa—the kind of violence that keeps UN peacekeepers on alert in the tiny island nation.