His solution to Haiti's drastic poverty problem is to install cash machines throughout the country although he

His solution to Haiti's drastic poverty problem is to install cash machines throughout the country, although he has not said where the money will come from.. Victor Benoit, 54, leader of the National Congress of Democratic Movements (Conacom), is likely to finish a distant second among the 14 candidates, who include the Virgin Mary Party and the fundamentalist Party of God.The candidate for the former, Dieuveuil Joseph, believes the Virgin talks and writes through him. TOM STEVENSON Deputy City Editor Trafalgar House stunned the City yesterday with a much bigger loss than even the gloomiest forecasters had expected. Mr Joseph says she always sits beside him while he holds a dialogue with what appears to be an empty chair. An article recently published in the American magazine The Nation claims the US secretly provided arms to the Haitian army and militias while publicly supporting Mr Aristide, and has continued to support the militias since his return to power.

It suggests former officers of the now disbanded army and gunmen of the so-called FRAPH militia remain heavily armed, threatening a return to violence after a scheduled pullout of US and other UN troops on 29 February.In remarks to foreign journalists on Thursday, Mr Aristide maintained the ambiguity that infuriates his US protectors."If I want to stay here tomorrow, I may create the conditions to still be here tomorrow," he said.Most well known politicians are boycotting tomorrow's elections, realising they have no chance against Mr Aristide's grassroots support. The US has said it will return the documents after deleting the names of any Americans. It was also seen as something of a "stay-in-line" warning to the candidate himself, who is believed by some observers to be at odds with the President and planning to set up a breakaway Lavalas faction after taking office.The possibility causes concern among US and other diplomats who fear Mr Preval is a more radical leftist than Mr Aristide, the fiery former priest with whom few Washington politicians felt comfortable, despite last year's operation to restore democracy and return him to office.Mr Preval's staff have leaked the news that he would appoint Emmanuel "Manno" Charlemagne, a popular left-wing singer and now mayor of Port- au-Prince, to head the key ministries of Interior and Defence.Even if tomorrow's election and the 7 February hand-over go off peacefully, Mr Preval may face a rocky road ahead, notably in his relations with Washington during a US election year.Mr Aristide was highly critical of the US in speeches this week, attacking Washington for holding back economic aid and refusing to hand over intelligence documents taken from the Haitian army and anti-Aristide militias during last year's intervention.Mr Aristide believes the documents may reveal the extent of CIA activity against him before and during his rule. He appeared to be telling Lavalas supporters that voting for Mr Preval was the same as voting for Mr Aristide, who cannot run for a second consecutive term, but could run again in the year 2000.

Fifty-one per cent of total votes cast will be enough to avoid a two-candidate January run-off and install Mr Preval in the presidential palace on 7 February.Mr Aristide described Mr Preval, his pre-coup prime minister, as his marasa, literally "twin" but also a popular voodoo loa (spirit) here. The Lavalas party uses the image of a family sitting round a table as its symbol.At the end of low-key campaigning, which has been largely financed by the US, opinion polls predicted Mr Preval would win 72 per cent of the votes, to only 7 per cent from his nearest challenger, although less than a third of the electorate may bother to turn out. Then we will be strong."One of the keenest banya fans is Boris Yeltsin. When politics goes wrong, he retreats to the baths with his bodyguard and close friend, Alexander Korzhakov. Rumour has it that the Kremlin elite can tell who's in or out of favour by the order in which they are allowed to birch the presidential back.It took a lot of sweat and tears to reach this conclusion, but I can now say this with confidence: if our visit to the baths is any guide, come Monday, Mr Yeltsin may well be seen heading for the nearest steam room.. PHIL DAVISON Port-au-Prince. Rene Preval, a 51-year-old agronomist, bakery owner and former prime minister, is expected to be elected Haiti's next president to replace Jean-Bertrand Aristide in tomorrow's elections.Using voodoo imagery and easy-to-understand symbols for his largely illiterate supporters, Mr Aristide formally endorsed Mr Preval, candidate of his Lavalas (Waterfall) coalition, in a speech yesterday for the first time.

That ended weeks of ambiguous comments which had suggested a split between the two men, and the possibility that Mr Aristide would succumb to some of his supporters' demands to call off the elections and stay in power for three more years.Using the Creole slogan "Titid pou twazan" (Aristide for three years), they say he deserves to serve out the time he lost in exile between the September 1991 military coup and the September 1994 American military intervention, which restored him to power."I myself will vote for the candidate of Bo Tab La [Round the Table], Rene Preval," he said to cheers while opening a new bridge in the southern town of Jacmel. Zhirinovsky [the extreme nationalist leader] - well, pfffff [he waves his hand dismissively]." He planned to vote Communist.Back in the changing-room, Yuri, a mustachioed man of about 35, had a question."Are you spies?" he demanded, seeing that - although still almost naked - we had our notebooks out.Some people apparently labour under the belief that the British security services will pretty well go to any lengths to winkle out information."What we need in all the countries around us is democracy," he continued, satisfied that neither of us was from MI6 "It will weaken them - whilst having less democracy here. You should have come to our aid in 1918, then none of this would have happened." He spat again. "There is no one worth voting for and it won't make any difference who I vote for anyway [spits]. Forty-three parties and no one to vote for! [spits] And what does it matter to you in the West.

You can live there and write about us, but it is we who have to live through it [spits]."Outside, Nikolai Nesorov, 60, a government worker, with a boxer's nose and a crewcut, was eating fish and drinking vodka, with a beer chaser: "We need a man like Stalin to help us out of this dead-end, but I don't see anyone like him Gorbachev - he's a prostitute. Ten minutes is the maximum even the most dogged interrogator can stand before setting off, at headlong speed, to plunge into the green waters of the nearby swimming pool, surrounded by classical colonnades and overlooked by a statue of Venus."I spit on the elections," said a young man, dripping with sweat And he did "It's all your fault. In the absence of either pen or notebook, the only socially acceptable apparatus at hand was the birch broom. Aficionados of the banya beat themselves with these during their steaming in the belief that this opens the pores."What [thwack] do you think [thwack, thwack] will happen [thwack, thwack, thwack] in the elections?" Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack As the welts rise, so does the heat. We had declined the offer of a small felt hat, much like a tea-cosy, which Russian males like to wear in the baths to protect their hair from the near- scalding heat.