27912: Lemieux-News-Caricom hails victory of Haiti's Preval (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

jd lemieux  lxhaiti@yahoo.com

Caricom hails victory of Haiti's Preval
BRIDGETOWN
Sunday, February 19th 2006


   The Caribbean Community (Caricom) has hailed
the victory of Rene Preval as Haiti's new
President, and looks forward to his participation
in the forthcoming annual summit meeting of Heads
of Government in July in St Kitts.

Preval, an agronomist by profession, who had
served a previous full five-year term as
President, was last Wednesday officially declared
winner of the February 7 presidential election
for which there was a total of 33 candidates.

A redistribution of some 85,000 blank ballots
among the candidates, based proportionately on
what had earlier been declared valid in their
favour, gave Preval the required 51 per cent for
victory. That made it unnecessary to face a
run-off next month with his nearest rival, Leslie
Manigat, who secured about 12 per cent of the
overall the results.

In a statement yesterday Caricom said it had
received "official communication" from interimÂ
government in Port-au-Prince of Prime MinisterÂ
Gerard Latortue of Preval's declared victory as
President- designate.

Caricom said "it is in the interest of all
Haitians to respect the outcome of the
Presidential elections in keeping with the norms
of the democratic process. The Community also
calls on all involved in the ongoing process to
do everything necessary to enhance and preserveÂ
its credibility".

Preval was President of Haiti when his countryÂ
was granted provisional membership of Caricom in
July 1997 at a then annual summit in Kingston,
Jamaica.





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