27831: (news) Chamberlain: Preval named president after election deal

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva and Jim Loney

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Haiti declared Rene Preval,
a one-time ally of ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's next
president on Thursday after reaching a deal over vote fraud claims and
averting a possible explosion of violence.
      Preval, opposed by the same wealthy elite who helped drive Aristide
from power two years ago but passionately supported by the Caribbean
country's poor, had said that "massive fraud" in the Feb. 7 election had
deprived him of a first-round victory in Haiti, one of the world's poorest
countries.
     "We have won. Now we are going to fight for parliament," Preval told
the Haitian Press Agency.
     Jubilant supporters poured into the streets of Port-au-Prince, dancing
and chanting "victory, victory," after the embattled Provisional Electoral
Council issued a statement on Haitian radio in the middle of the night.
     "Rene Preval has been declared the winner with 51 percent," council
President Max Mathurin said in the statement, setting the country of 8.5
million off on the next chapter in its turbulent political history, which
has been marked by instability, dictatorships and bloodshed.
     Last week's election was the first since populist Aristide fled into
exile in 2004, facing an armed revolt and international pressure to quit.
     Preval's supporters warned they would not allow him to suffer the same
fate as Aristide, who was twice elected and twice ousted, first by a
military coup and then by the revolt.
     Preval, 63, is the only president in Haiti's 202-year history to win a
democratic election, serve a full term and peacefully hand power to a
successor.
     "For us, Preval means hope, respect and progress," said Jonas Lundi,
28, as he joined a crowd in the Canape Vert district. "Now we have a
president elected by the people. Without violence and with tolerance, we
are going to work together to move this country forward."
     Brazil, which heads a peacekeeping force of 9,000 U.N. troops and
police, brokered the deal to distribute 85,000 "blank" votes, which showed
no choice for president out of the 33 candidates, proportionately among the
contenders.
     The blanks, amounting to 4.7 percent of the total, had been included
in accordance with the law and reduced the final percentage allocated to
each candidate.
     With 90 percent of the ballots counted, Preval had been at 48.7
percent -- below the simple majority he needed to avoid a March 19 runoff
and outraging his supporters.
     Many Haitians were suspicious of the large number of blank votes,
saying they could not imagine people trekking miles (km) to polling
stations simply to leave their ballots unmarked.
     The U.N. mission sent to maintain the peace in Haiti has also
acknowledged that partisan election workers could have stuffed ballot boxes
with blank ballots.
     The agreement over the blank votes lifted Preval's share to 50.9
percent.
     Industrialist Charles Baker, considered the main candidate of the
wealthy elite and who had been running a distant third to Preval with 7.9
percent of the vote, said he was caught off guard by the deal.
     "We thought we were in a democratic process and everybody would
observe the rules," Baker told Reuters, saying the distribution of the
blank votes violated the electoral law.
     Preval will take office on March 29, replacing an interim government
under Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, which was appointed after Aristide
fled.
     "We have elected Preval for five years," said Jean-Marie Theodore, 25,
a student. "We won't accept that he misses one minute of his five-year
mandate."

     (Additional reporting by Michael Christie)





 REUTERS