PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Attackers shot and hacked to death a local
                   political candidate in Haiti, then slashed his daughter with a machete, his party's
                   spokesman said Thursday.

                   The slaying of rural assembly candidate Merilus Deus on Monday night was
                   the latest of at least 10 killings amid tension over long-delayed elections in the
                   Caribbean country. Deus was a candidate in Savanette, a town of about 6,000
                   people some 55 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Port-au-Prince. Unidentified
                   assailants killed him in his home, said Ernst Colon, spokesman for the Christian
                   Movement for a New Haiti.

                   Deus' daughter, Michou, was hospitalized in critical condition.

                   "On the eve of elections, we wonder whether they can be held under the current
                   government," Colon said.

                   After weeks of street violence, the provisional electoral council said Tuesday that
                   Haiti's legislative and local elections will be held May 21. The elections have been
                   postponed three times since November, and opposition politicians have accused
                   President Rene Preval of trying to derail the voting.

                   "Elections aren't in the forefront of our minds now. We're worried about the
                   future of the country," said Sauveur Pierre-Etienne, spokesman for the
                   Struggling People's Organization. The organization had a majority in Parliament
                   when Preval shut it down in January 1999 and called for new elections.

                   Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.