Preval wins Haiti presidential elections
nterim government and election officials have announced that they have reached agreement to declare Rene Preval the winner of Haiti's presidential elections.
"We have reached a solution to the problem," said Max Mathurin, president of the Provisional Electoral Council. "We feel a huge satisfaction at having liberated the country from a truly difficult situation."
Earlier in the week, Brazil, whose military is leading the United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti, said that the best way to ease election tensions in the Caribbean nation would be to declare former president Rene Preval the victor.
"Considering the existing climate in the country, that would be the best solution," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's chief foreign relations advisor, Marco Aurelio Garcia, told reporters in Brasilia.
Garcia added that declaring Preval the winner would likely enjoy the unanimous support of the international community, since it would prevent a messy runoff vote from taking place. He said Brazil was worried about the situation in Haiti and that it "feared that the situation would deteriorate."
"We propose that the candidates recognise Preval's victory," Garcia said.
Garcia's remarks were made one day after Preval, a one-time ally of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and opposed by the wealthy elite, claimed that widespread fraud had prevented him from winning a first-round victory in last week's election.
Those allegations appeared to gain more legitimacy when hundreds of burned and still smoldering ballots, many cast for Preval, were later found at a garbage dump in Port-au-Prince.
Though the Haitian government has agreed to delay publishing the final results of the election to give Preval time to gather proof of his claims, protests continued to rage across the poor Caribbean country of 8.5 million people.
Haiti has been on tenterhooks since last week's vote as concerns swirled that election officials were manipulating the ballot to force Preval into a March 19 runoff.
"We have reached a solution to the problem," said Max Mathurin, president of the Provisional Electoral Council. "We feel a huge satisfaction at having liberated the country from a truly difficult situation."
Earlier in the week, Brazil, whose military is leading the United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti, said that the best way to ease election tensions in the Caribbean nation would be to declare former president Rene Preval the victor.
"Considering the existing climate in the country, that would be the best solution," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's chief foreign relations advisor, Marco Aurelio Garcia, told reporters in Brasilia.
Garcia added that declaring Preval the winner would likely enjoy the unanimous support of the international community, since it would prevent a messy runoff vote from taking place. He said Brazil was worried about the situation in Haiti and that it "feared that the situation would deteriorate."
"We propose that the candidates recognise Preval's victory," Garcia said.
Garcia's remarks were made one day after Preval, a one-time ally of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and opposed by the wealthy elite, claimed that widespread fraud had prevented him from winning a first-round victory in last week's election.
Those allegations appeared to gain more legitimacy when hundreds of burned and still smoldering ballots, many cast for Preval, were later found at a garbage dump in Port-au-Prince.
Though the Haitian government has agreed to delay publishing the final results of the election to give Preval time to gather proof of his claims, protests continued to rage across the poor Caribbean country of 8.5 million people.
Haiti has been on tenterhooks since last week's vote as concerns swirled that election officials were manipulating the ballot to force Preval into a March 19 runoff.
posted by Alice at
Thursday, February 16, 2006
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