Church bells peal and a man with a megaphone mimics a crowing rooster as the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide rides into town on horseback to be greeted by thousands of adoring supporters. The fiery leftist priest, revered by the masses as a prophet, is taking his remarkable quest for the presidency across Haiti in a campaign imbued with messianic symbolism and patriotic fervor. He calls the campaign Operation ``Lavales,'' or Torrent, a biblical flood to cleanse Haiti of corruption and tyranny; its emblem is the fighting cock, representing Haiti's coming sunrise. ``With Aristide, Lord, there will be no dishonesty,'' the people chant as the slight, bespectacled cleric nicknamed ``Titid'' appears in their midst. Aristide, 37, has survived at least three assassination attempts and was expelled from his Roman Catholic order in 1988 for preaching revolution. He is widely regarded as the frontrunner among 11 candidates in the Dec. 16 election. Supporters say the charismatic priest offers the best hope of giving the impoverished Caribbean nation not only the first democratically elected president in its turbulent 186-year history, but the stability of a government with huge popular support. Critics accuse Aristide of demagoguery and say his a presidency based on emotional mass appeal would pose the threat of a theocratic dictatorship. That appeal has been evident on campaign stops across the country, from the slums of Port-au-Prince, the capital, to the northern city of Cap-Haitien, where an estimated 60,000 people took part in what was probably the biggest demonstration in the city's history. In Jacmel, a crumbling port on the southern coast, perhaps 5,000 people, including hundreds of students in brown and blue school uniforms, poured into the town square for a recent Aristide rally. Dismounting a horse he rode from the outskirts of the city, Aristide plunged into one of his trademark question-response orations in which the distinctions between national pride and Christian love are blurred. Aristide: ``Young people, you know what it is to be lovesick?'' Crowd: ``Yes!'' Aristide: ``Are you in love with Haiti?'' Crowd: ``Yes!'' All sing the lilting ``Haiti Cherie,'' or ``Darling Haiti,'' which is to Haitians what ``America the Beautiful'' is to Americans. Then Aristide: ``We are going to do away with injustice - totally.'' Together: ``Totally, totally, totally, totally, totally, totally.'' Aristide unexpectedly entered the presidential race in mid-October after Roger Lafontant, reputed former head of the Duvalier dictatorship's infamous Tonton Macoute militia, declared his candidacy. Lafontant was later disqualified on a technicality. Although no opinion polls have been published, the consensus among political observers is that Aristide commands much wider support than any of Haiti's veteran politicians. ``Aristide is the figurehead of a messianic movement, the incarnation of a collective dream,'' says Laennec Hurbon, a specialist on religious movements in the Caribbean. ``His responsibility to his following is not the same as that of a politician to his constituency.'' Aristide gained a nationwide following largely from radio broadcasts of his electrifying sermons in which he railed against successive military regimes that have ruled Haiti since the February 1986, when Jean-Claude ``Baby Doc'' Duvalier was driven into exile. He is an adherent of liberation theology, which promotes political and social awareness among the poor. In September 1988, thugs armed with guns, machetes and spikes burst into Aristide's St. Jean Bosco Church during Mass, killing at least 12 parishioners and wounding 70. Three months later, Aristide, was expelled from the conservative Salesian Order for refusing to tone down his rhetoric. The only other presidential candidate whose appeal approaches Aristide's is the moderate Louis Dejoie Jr., who drew thousands of supporters on a recent campaign swing of the southern peninsula. Marc Bazin, a former World Bank official frequently mentioned as a favorite of the U.S. Embassy, which denies any preference, is also seen as running strongly. Bazin's National Alliance for Democracy andPProgress, the country's best-funded political machine, is expected to dominate Parliament after the election. If Bazin fails to win the presidency, he could still become prime minister since the president must chose a prime minister from among the majority party. Under Haiti's constitution, the president is head of state but the prime minister runs the government. Aristide has said he would ``embrace'' the next prime minister, but many Haitians see the potential for conflict. Voter registration has reached 3.3 million, or 92 percent of the electorate, according to election officials - a phenomenon largely attributed to Aristide's candidacy.
