In other Haiti news, an estimated crowd of 10,000 people marched through Port-au-Prince Thursday in support of the election campaign of former President Rene Preval. Preval was a close Aristide ally when he succeeded him in the country’s first ever democratic transition in 1996. Aristide’s political party Lavalas has split over whether to take part in the elections. Hundreds of political prisoners are in jail and many elected Lavalas officials remain in forced exile.