Haiti declares Preval president

2006-02-16 13:31

Port-Au-Prince - Haiti declared Rene Preval, a one-time ally of ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, president on Thursday after authorities agreed to throw out 85 000 "blank" votes from last week's election.

The Brazilian-brokered deal averted possible widespread violence after Preval had condemned "massive fraud" in the February 7 election and thousands of angry supporters had poured out of Haiti's teeming slums to demand he be given a first-round victory.

The deal over the blank ballots, which showed no choice for president among the 33 candidates and which were suspected of being tainted by fraud, lifted Preval's share of the vote to 51.15%, above the simple majority he needed to avoid a March 19 runoff.

Preval declared winner with 51%

President of the embattled Provisional Electoral Council Max Mathurin said: "Rene Preval has been declared the winner with 51%."

Opposed by the wealthy elite who helped drive Aristide from power in February 2004, but passionately supported by the Caribbean country's poor masses, Preval would take office on March 29.

The blanks, amounting to 4.7% of the total, were included in accordance with the law and reduced the final percentage allocated to each candidate. With 90% of the ballots counted, Preval had been at 48.7%.

While blank votes were a common way to register a protest vote in established democracies, few Haitians were able to believe that so many of their countrymen had decided not to make a choice in the first election since Aristide was deposed, and the blank votes had come under enormous suspicion.

- Reuters