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[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig


Getting elected may have been easy part for Préval
MARINA JIMÉNEZ
> From Friday's Globe and Mail
POSTED AT 6:12 AM EST ON 17/02/06

For René Préval, who was finally declared Haiti's next president yesterday 
after claims of voting fraud, getting elected was the easy part.

Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council announced Mr. Préval's victory yesterday 
in a move aimed at averting massive social unrest after several street protests 
this week demanding he be declared the winner.

"We have won. Now we are going to fight for parliament," Mr. Préval told the 
Haitian Press Agency, referring to the fact that electoral results for the 
129-member parliament have not yet been announced.

The 63-year-old agronomist remained secluded for the rest of the day at his 
sister's hilltop home outside the capital, while below in the streets throngs 
of cheering supporters danced and chanted, "Victory, victory."

Mr. Préval, a mild-mannered man who was once an ally of former president 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, now faces the difficult task of appeasing political 
opponents and bridging the gap between Haiti's many conflicting groups without 
alienating his support base, the same impoverished masses who support Mr. 
Aristide.

All of these challenges will be made doubly difficult in a polarized country 
with a "winner-takes-all" political culture and no tradition of bringing 
opposition faces into cabinet in the spirit of reconciliation.

"There is no tradition of compromise or an ability to work with the opposition 
in Haiti," said Carlo Dade, an adviser with the Canadian Foundation for the 
Americas, an Ottawa think-tank. "We need a government of national unity and the 
international community -- Brazil, the U.S., Canada -- must push this."

Mr. Préval's government will also be saddled from the start with accusations 
that his electoral victory was rigged, much as Mr. Aristide's second term as 
president was undermined by disputed Senate elections in 2000.

Mr. Préval was declared a winner nine days after the Feb. 7 vote, after his 
accusation that "massive fraud" -- including the discovery of marked ballots in 
a garbage dump -- had cost him a victory on the first round.

In the initial tally, 85,000 unmarked ballots were included in the total, 
lowering the final percentage allocated to each candidate, and costing Mr. 
Préval a victory as he had only 48.7 per cent of the vote.

To resolve the impasse, Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council distributed the 
85,000 blanks proportionally among the 33 presidential candidates, pushing Mr. 
Préval's share of the vote to 50.9 per cent -- enough to avoid a second round.

Critics, including a United Nations official, have suggested that Mr. Préval's 
political enemies stuffed ballots boxes with blank votes as it is unlikely that 
Haitians who waited as long as six hours in the sun to vote would have cast 
blanks as a form of protest.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday defended the deal, which adhered to 
the Haitian constitution and was brokered by foreign diplomats, government 
officials and international observers.

However, Mr. Préval's leading rival, former president Leslie Manigat, denounced 
final election results as a "/coup d'état /through the ballots." Charles Baker, 
a businessman who ran a distant third, attracting support from the country's 
elite and some rural sectors, also questioned the electoral outcome.

The most pressing challenge for Mr. Préval will be to bring order and stability 
to the Western hemisphere's poorest country, which has been besieged by 
kidnappings and armed battles in slums where his supporters have clashed with 
UN troops sent to stabilize the country.

Many of Mr. Préval's supporters in shantytowns such as Cité Soleil have pressed 
for the return of Mr. Aristide, who was ousted Feb. 29, 2004, after a bloody 
uprising by thugs and ex-soldiers. While the two men were once close allies, 
Mr. Préval has tried to distance himself from the exiled leader.

"Préval is very much aware that Mr. Aristide's early return is unacceptable. It 
will bring chaos to Haiti," the political consultant in Port-au-Prince said.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail three days before the election, Mr. 
Préval said his priorities are to introduce free primary education, create 
jobs, encourage aid and investment and disarm gang members.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060217.wxhaiti17/BNStory/International/home