Haiti Holds First Round of Presidential Elections

Despite Haiti's propensity for election violence - police will deploy 10 000 officers, backed by 5 000 from the United Nations peacekeeping force MINUSTAH - many people were in a buoyant mood on the eve of voting.

The Associated Press, citing Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council, reports final results from Sunday's election are not expected until late November.

Meteayer Mendy, a jobless resident of the impoverished area where officials say pre-election violence resulted in about 15 deaths in recent days, ran alongside the auto carrying Aristide and Narcisse as it wound through the pitted streets.

Although more police were mobilised today than in August, huge security concerns still lingered after a truck carrying ballots and other election materials was attacked and set on fire in the north of the country last night, preventing voting centers in Borgne from opening today.

In August, an earlier round of voting was marred by violence and voter intimidation, as gunmen fired at polling stations.

The first-round presidential polls in the Caribbean nation, which is also holding second-round legislative elections and voting for local officials, are unfolding in a climate of uncertainty.

Celestin is supported by Wyclef Jean, the U.S.-based Haitian hip-hop star and one-time presidential aspirant, who produced a campaign song saying "the time has come" to end corruption as well as deforestation that has left the country's hillsides notoriously bare. He disbanded parliament in January and began governing by executive order. Constitutional law bars him from running for re-election Sunday.

The team was scheduled to being arriving in Haiti on 21 October and will depart on the 27 and 28 October.

He has promised to modernize Haitian agriculture to be able to export 70 percent of food grown locally within three years of his election. Here are the top three presidential candidates, plus what they have indicated about what they stand for and their goals as president.

Moïse, 37, represents the ruling Parti Haitien Tet Kale (Haitian Party of Bald Heads) named after Martelly's famously smooth scalp. He is generally considered the presidential front-runner, although a few dispute that, as TeleSUR English reported. The party is named after a former Haitian independence leader. He was a runner-up in 2010. "And we need more jobs". He has also called for improving relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola.

Among those voters is 19-year-old student Guerrier Jean Kerby, who said he would not participate in Sunday's election despite having a favourite candidate he declined to identify. He has promised to fight poverty by renewing Haiti's economy. The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti suffers from a history of chronic instability and is still struggling to recover from the devastating 2010 natural disaster.

The magnitude 7.0 quake flattened most buildings in the capital, including the presidential palace, and five years on more than 85 000 people still live in makeshift camps, according to Amnesty global.

"By mid-day, police had already made 73 arrests throughout the country, Haiti National Police spokesman Franz Lerebours said".