The United States on Monday urged Haitians to respect the results of last week's presidential election, as protesters marched through Port-au-Prince streets demanding leading candidate Rene Preval be named president. "Any time there is a hard, contested election, … it's important that once the election results are announced and finalized that all parties come together and work together, regardless of their political differences, for the better of the country," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "We underscore at this point … that all respect the results of the election, and that there will be no resort to violence and people respect others' political differences," McCormack told reporters. He did not name any candidates in the election, which was held last Tuesday. With about 90 percent of the vote counted, Haiti's elections commission said Sunday that Preval was slightly short of the 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a runoff election. Some Haitians have alleged that fraud has prevented Preval's victory. On Monday, one man died and several others were wounded by gunfire as demonstrators protested the election results. U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti denied charges they caused the casualties.
