27484: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti's leading presidential candidates (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     Feb 5 (Reuters) - Haiti will hold a long-delayed presidential election
on Tuesday, the first ballot since former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide
was ousted after an armed revolt two years ago.

     There are 33 presidential candidates. Here are short descriptions of
some of the leading contenders:

     Rene Garcia Preval, born Jan. 17, 1943 (aged 63)
     Former president (1996-2001) and prime minister (1991-1993). Preval
studied agronomy in Belgium in the 1960s. He became the first and only
Haitian president to complete a five-year constitutional term and the only
elected president not to go into exile since the fall of the Duvalier
regime in 1986.

     Evans Paul, born Nov. 26, 1955 (aged 50)
     A former journalist and comedian, Paul was elected mayor of
Port-au-Prince in 1991. As a political activist, he had fought the Duvalier
dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s and was arrested on several occasions
and tortured under different authoritarian and military regimes. Originally
an ally of Aristide's, he became a leading critic of the ousted president.
He is running for president under the banner of the "Alliance" coalition.

     Marc Louis Bazin, born March 6, 1932 (aged 73)
     An economist who spent 18 years at the World Bank, Bazin became prime
minister in 1992 following a September 1991 military coup against Aristide
shortly after he began his first term as president. Bazin had also served
in 1982 as finance minister under Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. He is
the presidential candidate of the "Union for Haiti" coalition composed of a
faction of Aristide's Lavalas Family party and the Movement for the
Establishment of Democracy in Haiti.

     Guy Philippe, born Feb. 29, 1968 (aged 37)
     Philippe, a former army lieutenant, became a police commissioner in
1996. He studied law and undertook U.S.-backed military training in Ecuador
in 1995. Philippe went into exile in October 2000 after a disagreement with
the government and police authorities. The Aristide government accused him
of plotting a coup. He came back to the country in February 2004 to help
lead the month-long armed rebellion that toppled Aristide. He is the
presidential candidate for the "National Reconstruction Front."

     Serge Gilles, born Jan. 5, 1936 (aged 70)
     Gilles was elected senator in 1991 and 1993. As a political activist,
he fought the Duvalier dictatorship and was sent into exile in France,
where he spent 25 years from 1961 to 1986. He is a graduate of the
Political Studies Institute of Paris.

     Leslie Francois Manigat, born Aug. 16, 1930 (aged 75)
     Manigat led Haiti as president from February 1988 to June 1988 before
being overthrown in a military coup. He graduated from the Political
Studies Institute of Paris and studied history at Sorbonne University. He
has been a University professor in Paris, Venezuela and Trinidad.

     Dany Toussaint, born Sept. 12, 1957 (aged 48)
     Toussaint, a former army major, became chief of Haiti's interim police
force in 1995. He was elected senator in 2000. He studied management,
diplomacy and international relations and runs several businesses in Haiti.
He went into exile in 1991 after the first ouster of Aristide and came back
to the country in 1994 after the United States invaded Haiti and restored
Aristide to the presidency.

     Charles Henri Baker, born June 3, 1955 (aged 50)
     Baker is a successful industrialist, who became actively involved in
politics in 2003 and 2004 through the so-called Group of 184 that opposed
Aristide. He is a graduate of St. Leo College in Florida where he studied
management. He was vice-president of Haiti's Industrialists' Association.