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Former President Rene Preval appeared
headed for an outright victory in Haiti’s first
election since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted two
years ago, according to rivals and initial vote counts.
Preval, who led the impoverished Caribbean nation
from 1996 to 2001, did not claim victory but sounded
like a winner after election officials said the one-time
Aristide protege was leading with 61 percent after about
283,000 votes had been counted. Haiti has 3.5 million
registered voters.
The first official results touched off a
carnival-like celebration in the main square of
Marmelade, Preval’s hometown in the northern
mountains. People cheered, danced and chanted “Preval
is the one!”
“I am happy that I measure up to the weight of the
expectations of the people,” he said. “There is a
lot of poverty. We will have to work hard.”
If the initial results hold up, Preval would have the
simple majority he needs to win the presidency outright,
avoiding a second-round vote on March 19.
Another former president, Leslie Manigat, trailed in
second place with 13.4 percent, while industrialist
Charles Baker, the main candidate of the wealthy elite
which opposed Aristide, had 6.1 percent.
International observers praised the high turnout in a
ballot that could set a new test for U.S. foreign
policy, but criticized election officials for late poll
openings and irregularities during Tuesday’s election.
Many of the poorest Haitians, from the slums where
both Aristide and Preval found their strongest support,
said they were sure their candidate had won, and some of
his rivals also conceded that he had a clear lead.
“If Preval won, he won,” said Turneb Delpe,
another of the 33 presidential candidates.
‘OUR PRESIDENT IS RENE PREVAL’
The United States pressured Aristide to leave after
an armed revolt in 2004, accusing him of using thugs to
enforce his rule. Now, after a chaotic but mostly
peaceful vote in the destitute and unstable Caribbean
nation, Washington may have to deal with his one-time
ally, and another potential champion of the poor.
“We the Haitian people know who we voted for. I can
tell you now our president is Rene Preval,” said
Port-au-Prince resident Marc-Joel Saint-Fleur, 36. “We
are just asking the authorities to admit he is the one
we elected.”
Preval, 63, was president between the two terms of
Aristide, a firebrand former Roman Catholic priest
accused of despotism and corruption before he was pushed
from office by an armed revolt in 2004.
The leader of that rebellion, Guy Philippe, ran for
president but had won only 1,839 votes as of late
Thursday night, less than 1 per cent of those counted.
Preval has distanced himself from Aristide but has
not ruled out allowing him to return from exile in South
Africa.
South Africa said it would evaluate conditions after
the election to see whether it was safe for Aristide to
return.
Johan Van Hecke, head of a European Union observer
group, said the election suffered from considerable
shortcomings, but the enthusiastic turnout should be
praised.
“Overall, the administration of the process could
have been of a higher standard,” he told reporters,
and urged authorities to improve their performance. Some
polling stations opened hours late and some people had
difficulty voting.
While a Preval victory was unlikely to please
Washington, Harvard University Haiti analyst Robert
Rotberg said the United States had essentially washed
its hands of Haiti.
“The U.S. is a very distracted key player,” he
said. “If Iraq and Afghanistan weren’t the big
things on the block maybe the U.S. would focus on Haiti
a bit more but it’s not going to do so if there’s no
mass boat migration out of Haiti.”
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