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For UN, pre-election violence is down in Haiti (Extra)

Nov 25, 2010, 17:55 GMT

Port-au-Prince - Pre-election violence is down in Haiti this year despite the recent wave of protests, Edmond Mulet, head of the UN Stabilization Mission for Haiti (MINUSTAH), said Thursday.

'If you compare this year's electoral process with last year's parliamentary elections or the presidential elections of 2006, despite some frictions or problems we have seen a lot less violence, frictions, a lot less polarization,' Mulet told a press conference.

'In any Haitian electoral process there are tensions, nervousness. In Haiti, prior electoral processes have been a source of uncertainty, of killings, of repression, and Haitians still have that very present in their minds. There is a lot of anxiety in the population,' he said.

Against this backdrop, Mulet noted, Sunday's election appears 'a lot better' than its predecessors, based among other things on the improved training of those in charge of organizing the vote, and on the increased presence of police and MINUSTAH officers.

'Within the Haitian context, I think we will have a good election,' he said.

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