27836: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Preval Profile (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 16 (AP) -- Haiti's new president Rene Preval faces
the mammoth task of moving his country out of chaos, crime and crushing
poverty, but at least all the challenges are familiar.
   A shy, soft-spoken former agronomist, Preval led Haiti from 1996 to
2001, a period of relative calm between the two presidential terms of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was twice ousted by rebellious mobs. Preval,
63, is the only democratically elected Haitian president to finish the
five-year term.
   "We will not be able to do everything right away," Preval told The
Associated Press in his northern village of Marmelade on the eve of the
Feb. 7 election. "But we are determined to do our best and raise the
standard of living for the people of Haiti."
   Preval was declared the winner about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, staving off a
potential crisis after days of protests by his supporters who alleged fraud
and manipulation. With nearly all the votes from the election counted and
thousands of blank ballots subtracted from the total, Preval had 51.15
percent, enough to avoid a runoff.
   Preval studied in Belgium as a young man, then returned to Haiti in the
1970s and became active in the movement to oust the Duvalier dictatorship.
After the fall of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier in 1986, he became a
close ally of Aristide, a liberation theologist hugely popular among the
poor.
   Preval was named prime minister after Aristide was elected president in
1990. Aristide referred to the president-elect as his "twin."
   Aristide spokeswoman Maryse Narcisse said in New York the former leader
would make a statement "pretty soon."
   Preval followed Aristide into exile when the army overthrew him in a
September 1991 coup and returned after a U.S. invasion restored Aristide to
power three years later.
   Preval's election in 1996 marked the first peaceful transition from one
democratically elected president to another since Haiti won independence in
1804. Many felt that Preval served as a placeholder president from 1996 to
2001 for his more dynamic mentor.
   When he took office in 1996, Preval vowed to turn Haiti into "a vast
construction site" and "re-establish the authority of the state." He now
acknowledges that he largely failed.
   But he said he struggled against corruption and had some modest
accomplishments, such as successfully privatizing the state-run flour mill
and cement factory.
   "We didn't steal and we didn't violate human rights," he told the AP
before the vote.
   After his first presidency, Preval, who has two daughters, went to live
in his grandmother's house in the north-central town of Marmelade, where he
devoted himself to local development projects before Aristide was ousted
again in 2004.
   Preval insists he has emerged from the shadow of the ousted president.
This time, he notably did not run on the ticket of Aristide's Lavalas
Family party.
   His party is called "Lespwa," Haitian Creole for "hope."