Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Tens of thousands of Haitians poured into the streets of this cramped capital Thursday, banging drums and waving banners to celebrate an unusual compromise that handed Haiti’s presidency to Rene Preval and ended a nine-day electoral crisis.
Preval was awarded the presidency after days of intense negotiations with the interim government that rules Haiti and with international diplomats.
The negotiators agreed not to count more than 80,000 blank votes, nudging Preval past the 50 percent mark he needed to avoid a runoff.
The announcement came after three days of huge demonstrations, including fiery protests Monday and Tuesday that paralyzed Port-au-Prince and other Haitian cities.
“We’re delighted,” said Fritz Longchamp, a Preval adviser and former Haitian ambassador to the United Nations who was involved in the negotiations.
“But we are still frustrated because we do not think that the figures reflect our real score. We think our figure should be much higher.”
Preval ended up with 51 percent of the vote after the compromise, enough to avert a runoff but short of an overwhelming mandate to lead this impoverished nation.
His supporters are mindful of the issue of legitimacy in Haiti, which has been riven by political strife for decades.
Preval, who was president of Haiti from 1996 to 2001, is the only leader of this country in modern history to complete a full five-year term. Others, including his mentor, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, have been toppled by a succession of coups.
Many streets in Port-au-Prince were impassable Thursday morning because of the crush of celebrants. Joseph Louis drove a tap-tap, one of the colorful trucks used as taxis here, up a mountain road to the Petionville suburb and smiled widely.
“I am so happy,” Louis said. “This is what we were waiting for. We were waiting for Preval.”
The agreement came late into a Wednesday night meeting of government and election officials.
“We have reached a solution to the problem,” Provisional Electoral Council president Max Mathurin said. “We feel a huge satisfaction at having liberated the country from a truly difficult situation.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
