Haitian presidential candidate René Preval (right) greets supporters after casting his ballot in the hamlet of Marmelade, near Gonaives, Haiti on Tuesday. It was Haiti's first election since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed in a bloody revolt two years ago. Preval is way ahead of his rivals in the vote count. - REUTERS
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP):
RENÉ PREVAL, a former president seen as a champion of Haiti's poor for his efforts to uplift peasants, appeared headed yesterday to a first-round election victory, even before official results were announced.
Preval, a former protégé and one-time ally of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was characteristically low key as reports of election returns landed at his party headquarters in Port-au-Prince, the capital. A campaign official said Preval had won almost 68 per cent of the 359,000 votes counted so far.
Leslie Manigat, believed to be Preval's strongest rival in the field of nearly three dozen candidates, said early returns showed Preval has surged ahead.
"There is a tiny chance that we will have a second round, but I fear Preval has made a clean sweep of the votes," Manigat said.
Standing on the porch of his family home in Marmelade, a rural northern town, Preval said he was marking time and catching up on sleep until official results are out. Election authorities said that might not be until late Friday or Saturday.
"My work is over," Preval told The Associated Press. "I'm waiting. It's boring."
His campaigning is ended unless he fails to win a majority and must go to a second-round election in March against the other top vote-getter. But Preval faces monumental tasks if he wins the presidency of this impoverished nation.
HIGH LEVEL OF ILLITERACY
Most Haitians cannot read or write, and subsist on about a dollar a day. A wave of kidnappings by heavily armed gangs has swept the capital. Amid the insecurity, assembly plants are closing, causing the losses of thousands of jobs. Donor nations are hesitant to contribute money because of a legacy of government corruption.
Preval's own tenure as president from 1996-2001 was less than stellar. His efforts at agrarian reform failed because landless peasants who received land could not live on the small amount they were given. He clashed with Parliament over the legitimacy of the legislators who won contested elections. Human rights advocates accused him of interfering in the judicial system and of politicising the police force.
But poor Haitians remember that Preval tried to help them. Even the smaller efforts are remembered by those whose plight was ignored by a series of governments and dictatorships.
"He built the big marketplace downtown. He fixed it so that the vendors could get out of the mud," said Yves Valea, a 70-year-old street sweeper.
