Shots fired at Haitian election rally

Shots were fired at people attending a rally held by Haitian presidential candidate Michel Martelly, and his campaign team is calling it an assassination attempt.

Martelly, one of the leading candidates and a popular singer in Haiti, was leaving his final campaign rally Friday evening in the seaside town of Les Cayes when shots were fired from apickup truck. There are reportsat least one person was killed and several were wounded.

Someone grabbed Martelly and moved him away, hiscousin Richard Morsetold reporters at a hotel in Port-au-Prince on Saturday. He said his group thenheard machine-gun fire.

Later, the entourage all met up at a gas station. "When you're in this situation, you'reacting and reacting," said Morse, adding he wasn't completely sure what happened.

Martelly campaign aide Karine Beauvoir said her groupstands by itsstatement that thiswas an assassination attempt.

It was the second such recent incident. Mirlande Manigat, whose husband once served as interim president, cut her rally short two days ago after a gun was fired in the crowd.

Thecandidatesand the United Nations are predictingmore violence.

Edmond Mulet, head of the UN Mission in Haiti, has acknowledged that violence could eruptwhile people head to the polls, but he said in a statement earlier this week that security forces have been trained to provide safe conditions at polling stations.

Both Martelly and Manigathave accusedthe government of potential fraud in Sunday's vote, andanotherof Haiti's biggest parties is refusing to recognize the election at all.

Fanmi Lavalas, the party of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was barred from the election. A party spokeswoman said the election is a masquerade, and the party views it as a selection, not an election.

The election comes as Haiti battles a growing cholera outbreak that hasclaimed more than 1,600 lives. It is also the first election since a7.0-magnitude earthquake last Januarykilled 250,000 people.