World Notes HAITI

Carrying cardboard coffins draped in black, about two dozen people staged an impromptu march in Port-au-Prince last week after a memorial Mass for the more than 50 victims of last month's election-day violence. Suddenly three gunmen, by some accounts dressed in army or police uniforms, began firing into the crowd. The toll: a 25-year-old mourner dead and four seriously wounded.

The latest violence followed publication of a new electoral law by the government of Lieut. General Henri Namphy. In violation of the country's nine- month-old constitution, the law requires that ballots be examined by government-appointed agents, and bars civilian observers from the polls. Presidential elections are scheduled for Jan. 17, but the four leading candidates are convinced that Namphy will install his own man in office, and have refused to run.