David Wimhurst Quotations

We're quite convinced the elections will be held on schedule and will unfold, we hope, with no incidents so that everyone can make their choice democratically and freely.

Nobody expected (voter turnout) to be higher than the first round, and historically there's not a lot of turnout for legislative elections in Haiti.

Obviously, we always hope that they will see their way to completing the Lusaka protocol and peace agreement, but all evidence to date suggests that this is not what they intend to do.

People will see a lot of soldiers and a lot of police around to make sure people know the election is going to go smoothly.

But this is a long-term thing. There isn't going to be any short, quick answer to this one.

From that we may be able to start to get a picture of who was involved.

I don't think it's as bad as it sounds. The election of Mr. Preval has been universally welcomed except for one or two quarters. It's a result that has generally been accepted by the entire international community.

He has reported 10 minutes ago that he can hear shots being fired below him. People are screaming, and the Indonesian army is advancing up the mountain, slaughtering refugees. That is happening now, as we speak.

Our mission was to verify that the voting centers the electoral council had selected physically existed. It had never been our job to determine the location of voting centers.

You'll see more patrols, more soldiers out than usual from now and until elections. All the last minute arrangements are in place. We expect a large turnout.

We've mobilized our fleet of donkeys and mules and they'll trot off and carry the election materials up the mountain.

We have all our security people out there to maintain order. When you get thousands of people on the streets, things can get unpredictable.

We have tens of thousands of people outside some polling stations, huge numbers. Sometimes they get unruly, but most are waiting patiently.

Troop contributors do provide soldiers on a voluntary basis and they can withdraw them when they feel it's appropriate.

We are deeply saddened by this, and it's one more victim in a long line of victims this territory's seen.

We came in here unarmed. We've been in these situations before. I draw your attention back to those who are responsible for this violence and those who are responsible for controlling this violence, and they are not doing that.

We don't ourselves have forensic capability. We have checked in Freetown, and there is no forensic laboratory available, which makes our task somewhat difficult.

We were told at 11:30 this morning that the militias and the TNI -- the armed forces -- were attacking the refugees. We have just received a third piece of information, from another refugee in that area, who's on the top of the mountains overlooking Dare.

There have been a few incidents which were unpleasant. But for the most part, things have gone pretty well.

We fired two warning shots into the air, and we didn't injure anyone.

We have (enough) soldiers so we can continue to cover the area they were patrolling.

First there is the fact that the first round of elections (on February 7) is finished, and with the election of Mr. Rene Preval I think there is a certain relief in the population happy to see its candidate chosen.

There's some frustration and anger on the voting lines. People have ben waiting several hours now and in some cases they haven't even got inside.

There's some frustration and anger on the voting lines.

Some polling workers didn't show up for work, so we're going to grab people from the crowd, give them some quick training and get them in there.

This is really quite disturbing, and it looks like it's going to mess up things quite a bit.

This makes the identification of the dead bodies more difficult.

There's a lot of security alerts all over town. Our staffers are being told to stay home because they can't get to work.

It's a slow start. We think some people are waiting to see if they can vote later in the day. We expect it to pick up.

It's not normal to have these ballots there.

It's like putting on a major performance without a rehearsal.

It's been a very agitated day, but there has been little actual violence.

It took far too long in some cases.

They did not injure anybody. Later, shots were fired by unidentified individuals in the same area. I can assure you no individuals were wounded by U.N. peacekeepers.

I'm aware there's a rumor that he left the country but I can't confirm.

If he believes there have been irregularities, he has the right to request an investigation.

All we know is that 17 skulls have been discovered.

All the mules have trotted down the mountains with their heavy loads. We're sending out helicopters to pick them up. We'll have a lot of material coming in today.