PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The field of presidential candidates stood at 14 today, with a leftist champion of the poor favored, after the Electoral Council barred former President Leslie Manigat and 11 others from running. Among those disqualified from the Dec. 16 elections was Dr. Roger Lafontant, the former chief of the Tonton Macoute militia, the private army of the brutal Duvalier family dictatorship. Lafontant claimed he was wrongfully eliminated and would appeal to the Supreme Court. An outstanding warrant charges Lafontant with conspiring against national security. The army, long the country's leading political force, has never served the warrant. The Tonton Macoutes terrorized this impoverished Caribbean nation of 6 million people for 29 years until a popular uprising forced Jean-Claude Duvalier, son of the late Francois Duvalier, into exile in 1986. But the country has been plagued by political turmoil and violence ever since. The caretaker government of President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot, appointed in March, is the fifth since Duvalier's ouster. Another former Duvalier official disqualified from running for president was Claude Raymond. The former army chief of staff has been publicly accused of participating in the massacre of voters that thwarted 1987 general elections. In the massacre, armed thugs in collusion with troops killed at least 34 people. Twelve Duvalierists had been barred from running for president in that balloting. A new constitution drafted earlier in 1987 barred criminal supporters of past dictators from running for office until 1997. The Electoral Council said the 10 candidates disqualified Monday, including Lafontant and Raymond, failed to comply with filing procedures. It said Manigat, disqualified Tuesday night, was barred under a constitutional article that specifies the ``president may not be re-elected'' unless five years have passed between terms. Manigat, who was widely viewed as a puppet of the military, gained the presidency in a controversial election in January 1988 and was ousted six months later in a coup. The council on Tuesday night also disqualified Duvalierist banker Clemard Joseph Charles, saying he was wanted as a fugitive in the United States but giving no details. The Rev. Jean Bertrand Aristide, a leftist priest, spokesman for the poor and ardent foe of Haiti's dictatorships, is given the best chance of winning the Dec. 16 vote - if it is free and fair. Dr. Louis Roy, chief of the Council of State that rules alongside Ms. Pascal-Trouillot, said Aristide's campaign may lose momentum with Lafontant's disqualification - ``But he remains the leading contender because he enjoys the backing of the impoverished masses.'' Also still in the running are major candidates Marc Bazin, a former World Bank official; former preacher Silvio Claude, and businessman Louis Dejoie Jr. The council's disqualifications this week were welcomed by many leading Haitians. ``I foresee a relatively normal unfolding of the electoral process now,'' said Jean-Claude Bajeux, a human rights activist and leader of the Congress of Democratic Movements, a socialist party. About 800 observers from the United Nations and the Organization of American States will monitor the vote.
