Haiti's advisory council recommends banning Aristide's party from elections

Haiti's government advisory council recommended Saturday that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party be banned from upcoming elections, said reports from Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

The Council of Sages, a US backed seven-member panel that picked the interim government, accused Aristide's Lavalas Family Party of stoking violence in the violence-wracked country.

The council urged the interim government to disqualify the Lavalas Family Party from the electoral process.

Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council, however, noted that all political parties would be welcome to contest the elections in October and November.

"The election is for all political parties of Haiti," said electoral council spokesman Rosemond Pradel.

"If Lavalas Family has a party and they want to participate, all they have to do is call the Provisional Electoral Council and register," the spokesman said.

Haiti has seen a mounting wave of kidnappings and killings in recent months as it prepares for elections later this year.

UN peacekeepers have intensified operations against armed gangs both for or against Aristide who was ousted in a bloody rebellion in February 2004.

Source: Xinhua