Election officials and other political leaders said today that they believed the killing Tuesday of a presidential candidate was part of a plan by loyalists of the deposed Duvalier regime to intimidate candidates and voters.

He had his first tastes of that oppression at the fist of his abusive father, a businessman who prospered under the corrupt Duvalier regime.

After the hated Duvalier regime collapsed, the number of Haitians seeking United States sanctuary did not decrease; they increased as Haitian police controls diminished.

At one point General Avril suggested that exiled supporters of the deposed Duvalier regime were trying to use the army to regain power.

We have been through Duvalier regimes with never a word from Washington.

In barring the 10 candidates from the race, the council did not invoke a controversial article of Haiti's 1987 Constitution that bans "zealous supporters" of the toppled Duvalier regime from holding public office.

The other is Roger Lafontant, a notorious leader in the last Duvalier regime whose name still strikes terror among Haitians who know of his former misdeeds.

In his seven months in office, he moved energetically against thugs from the old Duvalier regime.

The corrupt and despotic Duvalier regime rose to power, stifling democracy with the dreaded Tontons Macoute.

Gonaïves was the birthplace of Haiti's independence 200 years ago, the seat of the uprising against the 30-year Duvalier regime and the kickoff zone for the revolt against Mr. Aristide.