PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - A former legislator has been kidnapped in Haiti's capital, the latest victim in a string of abductions that has added to insecurity ahead of general elections planned for later this year, an official said yesterday.

An average of six people are kidnapped per day in the capital, officials say.

Kely Bastien, who presided over Haiti's lower house of Parliament from 1995 to 2000, was kidnapped on Tuesday while driving in Port-au-Prince, said Gary Philoctete, the interim director of the international aid agency CARE in Haiti.

Bastien is a physician who works for CARE. Relatives said his kidnappers are demanding a US$200,000 (euro161,000) ransom for his release, private Radio Kiskeya reported.
Judicial police chief Michael Lucius said authorities were investigating the kidnapping, but he was unable to give details.

A one-time ally of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Bastien became increasingly critical of his policies in the months prior to 2000 legislative elections. Bastien lost his parliamentary seat in the controversial balloting, which he alleged was rigged by Aristide.

Bastien supported the rebellion by former pro-Aristide armed gangs and members of the demobilised army that ousted Aristide in February, 2004.

The surge in kidnappings of poor and prominent Haitians, as well as foreigners, is the latest trend in unrelenting violence that Haiti's interim government says aims at preventing planned November and December elections.

Nearly 1,000 people have been slain in Haiti since September 2004, when Aristide loyalists stepped up protests in Port-au-Prince to demand his return from exile in South Africa, human rights groups say.

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