Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Officials of Haiti’s interim government and electoral council announced early today they have reached agreement to declare front-runner 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.”
Wednesday, U.N. peacekeepers recovered hundreds of marked ballots and other election materials from a landfill north of the capital, bolstering allegations by Preval that fraud prevented him from winning the Feb. 7 vote.
Discovery of crumpled ballots and smashed plastic boxes prompted authorities to order an investigation into how voting records that were supposed to be under U.N. escort ended up in the fly-infested dump.
While the number of discovered ballots is too low to make a difference, together with other missing votes and counting glitches they could help push Preval above the 50 percent required to avoid a runoff.
The last official estimate – before counting was suspended – gave Preval nearly 49 percent, with about 90 percent of the ballots counted.
“We are shocked by this incident. It re inforces my conviction that the results are being manipulated,” said Jean Chavannes- Jeune, another presidential contender, who stands fourth in the still-incomplete tally.
Preval spent the day caucusing with foreign diplomats, U.N. officials and Haiti’s unelected interim authorities in an attempt to “negotiate a solution,” said one of his aides.
They want the 63-year-old agronomist declared the victor, regardless of whether he clears the 50 percent, to avoid a costly and volatile runoff with distant second-place contender Leslie Manigat.
Preval supporters marched through the tense, debris-strewn streets chanting “Give us our president!” While they heeded Preval’s Tuesday appeal to keep their protests peaceful, palpable anger infused the marchers and spurred shopkeepers to shutter their businesses.
“They threw away our ballots! They dumped them and burned them to get rid of them!” cried Kenny Paul, 20, grabbing at the image of Preval emblazoned across his yellow T-shirt. “We voted for Preval and all we want is for them to give us our president.” Preval is backed by the poor and illiterate still smarting from the forced departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
A fiery champion of liberation theology who threatened Haiti’s small clique of wealthy businesspeople, Aristide fled an armed rebellion two years ago and now lives in South African exile. Preval served as president between Aristide’s two terms, and is considered his protégé.
Footage of the landfill cache was carried on Haiti’s private Telemax TV late Tuesday, providing the latest and most damning evidence of irregularities in counting the 10-day-old vote. Officials of the Provisional Electoral Council had earlier reported that 85,000 blank ballots were cast.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
