27837: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti names Preval president, enraging rival (fwd)

[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 on vote fraud claims that
averted a feared outbreak of violence.
      Preval, a former president opposed by the same wealthy elite who
helped drive Aristide from power two years ago but passionately supported
by the Caribbean country's poor, claimed "massive fraud" in the Feb. 7
election had deprived him of a first-round victory in 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.
     Preval's leading rival in the election, ex-President Leslie Manigat,
however, angrily denounced what he called a "coup d'etat through the
ballots" and vowed to contest the result.
     "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 a turbulent political history marked by
instability, dictatorships and bloodshed.
     Last week's election was the first since Aristide fled into exile in
2004, facing an armed revolt and international pressure to quit after his
image as a hero of Haitian democracy was stained by accusations of
despotism and corruption.
     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, was president from 1996-2001, between Aristide's two
terms, and is the only leader 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.
     Smiling Preval supporters clogged streets in the chaotic capital,
waved posters of their candidate, drove in ecstatic, honking convoys and
congregated near the National Palace, where Preval will take office on
March 29.
     Brazil, which heads a peacekeeping force of 9,000 U.N. troops and
police, brokered the deal to distribute 85,000 ballots that were left blank
proportionately among the 33 candidates.
     The blanks, amounting to 4.7 percent of the total, had been included
in the total number of votes, in accordance with the law, reducing the
final percentage allocated to each candidate. That helped keep Preval's
share at 48.7 percent -- below the simple majority he needed to avoid a
March 19 runoff.
     Many Haitians suspected the blank votes had been stuffed into ballot
boxes to force Preval into a second round and outraged supporters on Monday
brought Port-au-Prince to a standstill, erecting roadblocks and storming
the capital's top luxury hotel.
     Vote fraud suspicions were reinforced on Tuesday when piles of
half-burned ballots were found on a garbage dump.
     The agreement over the blank votes lifted Preval's share to 50.9
percent.
     Manigat, who trailed far behind Preval at 11.8 percent, said the
declaration of Preval's victory was illegal.
     Industrialist Charles Baker, considered the main candidate of the
wealthy elite and a distant third 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.
     Poor Haitians warned foes not to destabilize Preval.
     "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)