Battered New Orleans votes as world watches

NEW ORLEANS, Apr 23: New Orleanians voted in their battered city's first post-Katrina election yesterday, facing the tough choice of staying with Mayor Ray Nagin and his vision for rebuilding or opting for new blood.

Voting was brisk in what many community leaders are calling the most important election in the nearly three-century history of the city known as the birthplace of jazz, which was devastated by the hurricane nearly eight months ago.

At stake is the speed and shape of the massive recovery amid concerns over the strength of the levees before the next storm, drained city coffers, racial tension and questions about whether some badly damaged neighborhoods will get rebuilt.

The election, which has garnered global attention, had been pushed back from the previous February 4 date, partly to plan for accommodating out-of-town voters with more than half the city's population still displaced across the country.

Some voters said they felt a deep responsibility to cast ballots, given the need for strong leadership to move past the crisis. Pre-Katrina voter turnouts were low.

Asseta Olugbala, who has lived in Detroit since losing her home in the flood, traveled back at her own expense to vote, fearing a mail-in ballot might get lost amid spotty postal service in southern Louisiana since the storm. She lamented the difficulty of getting information about candidates in such a faraway locale.

''I've voted in every election, because I stand on the shoulders of people who made too many sacrifices to give me the opportunity to have this vote, and I don't take it for granted,'' Olugbala, 60, said outside a polling station in the largely African-American Gentilly Woods area.

Nagin, who is black and has been New Orleans' face to the world since Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city, was criticized for a shaky initial response and more recently for saying New Orleans should be reborn as a ''chocolate city,'' suggesting that rebuilding plans should favor the black community. He later apologized for the remark.

He has said he hoped when residents vote they consider his experience dealing with federal and state agencies as the June 1 start to the 2006 hurricane season looms.

RUNOFF EXPECTED

His top rivals among more than 20 challengers include Louisiana Lt Gov Mitch Landrieu, son of New Orleans' last white mayor, and Ron Forman, chief executive of the Audubon Nature Institute, who is also white. All three are Democrats. If no candidate wins a majority -- and none is expected to -- the two with the most votes will be in a May 20 runoff.

Results from the vote could be announced late yesterday or early today, Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater said.

Civil rights activists like Rev Jesse Jackson tried to delay the election, arguing that without out-of-state polling centers it was skewed against residents who are still evacuees, most of whom are black.

Jackson said his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition will launch a court challenge regardless of the result.

''Iraqi-Americans could vote by satellite to Falluja and to Baghdad,'' he told a news conference. ''New Orleanians could not vote from Mississippi to New Orleans. So people are coming today by bus and by van and the press carries it as a heroic journey. It is an unnecessary and volatile journey.'' But Ater said he did all he could to ensure a fair vote, such as offering early mail-in balloting and opening satellite voting centers in Louisiana border towns and New Orleans for five days last week.

More than 20,000 early and absentee votes were cast amid efforts by evacuee groups to bus displaced people to polling sites. There are 297,000 registered voters.

''Me and our staff and the entire elections community said we're going to do everything in our power to make certain (New Orleanians) don't suffer another disaster, and that's not being able to participate in choosing the leaders who will be in charge of rebuilding their city,'' Ater said.

With billions of dollars in federal aid at stake, it is crucial residents vote to show the country they are serious about rebuilding, Ernie Bourg, 55, said after casting his ballot near the French Quarter.

''If we don't turn around our lackadaisical attitude, people are going to wonder, 'Why should we fund New Orleans?'''

REUTERS