Ex-Haitian President Preval has early lead, spokesman says

[cal04]

Ex-Haitian President Preval has early lead, spokesman says, as votes still being counted

A spokesman for former Haitian President Rene Preval said Wednesday that unconfirmed early results showed him with a wide lead in the country's presidential race -- even though many ballots were still being carried in from remote polling places by plane, truck and mule. The claim from Preval's team could not be verified, and the first official results were not expected to be released until 20 percent of the vote is counted, which could happen late Wednesday, said Stephan Lacroix, a spokesman for Haiti's electoral council. Final results might not be available until Friday.

Tuesday's elections were the first since the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a bloody revolt two years ago, and officials said collecting and tabulating the results would take several days. But some polling stations posted unconfirmed local results outside. These showed strong early support for Preval, a shy and soft-spoken 63-year-old agronomist widely supported by Haiti's poor masses.

At a large polling center near the huge slum of Cite Soleil, unconfirmed results taped to large columns inside showed Preval winning about 90 percent of the votes cast there. Across the capital in Petionville, home to many of Haiti's wealthiest citizens as well the poor Haitians who serve them, Preval took slightly more than 70 percent of the vote at another polling station, according to posted results.

Preval's political adviser, Bob Manuel, said preliminary calculations show the former president having won 67 percent of the nationwide vote, with 16 percent of votes counted.

[magellan]

1. Info on Preval (because I was curious)

Sounds like the equivalent of a suck up Dem Corporatist...which still puts him head and shoulders over the crew Bush** left in power after forcing Aristide out.

From Wikipedia:

René Garcia Préval (born January 17, 1943 in Port-au-Prince) was the President of Haiti from February 7, 1996 to February 7, 2001.

Préval holds a degree in agronomy from the College of Gembloux in Belgium. He was forced to leave Haiti with his family in 1963 after being targeted by the then-dictator, François Duvalier aka "Papa Doc". After spending five years in Brooklyn, New York, he returned to Haiti and obtained a position with the National Institute for Mineral Resources.

Préval served as prime minister of Haiti from February 13 to October 11, 1991, but was replaced and went into exile following the September 30, 1991 military coup. He was an ally of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and a leader of the Lavalas Family party.

He was elected as president for a five year term, with 88% of the popular vote in 1996. Upon his 1996 inauguration, Préval became the second democratically elected head of state in the country's 200-year history. In 2001, he became the first President of Haiti to leave office as a result of the natural expiration of his term. As president Préval instituted a number of reforms, most notably the privatization of various government companies. Some have suggested that these privatizations were a result of Préval bowing to the pressure exerted on him by external entities including the IMF. The unemployment rate (though still quite high) had fell to its lowest level since the fall of Duvalier by the end of Préval's term. This trend toward a decreasing unemployment rate continued during the subsequent tenure of Aristide until the 2004 coup.

Préval is currently running as an independent candidate in the scheduled Haitian presidential election of 2006, and is considered the frontrunner. During his campaign, he has sought to distance himself from any former association with the Lavalas party. Preval supports the current occupation of Haiti by U.N. forces, saying they "should stay as long as it is necessary",<1> in contrast to Aristide and many members of Lavalas who denounce the U.N. forces and accuse them of carrying out a campaigne of repression and violence at the behest of the U.S., France, and Canada.

[mom cat]

2. I talked to two Hatians today who were very excited about the chances

of an outright Preval win. Both also said that they feared that the US would "alter" the results.

[Matariki]

3. their fear is reasonable

and if not alter the results, then covertly support another coup.