René Préval, who took an huge early lead in Haiti’s presidential elections, is a former ally of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, though he has distanced himself from the former president who fled in 2004.
Préval took over 61% of the vote with 15% of the ballots counted, more than 48% ahead of his closest rival.
A former leader of Aristide’s Lavalas Family party, the left-leaning Préval (63) has opted to run for the small L’Espwa (Hope) party, a decision that may have helped widen his support base.
Aides insist he has not had any contact with Aristide since the former president resigned and fled on February 29, 2004 as the country plunged into chaos and insurgents closed in on the capital.
Like Aristide before him, he is seen as a champion of the poor, who make up 77% of the 8,5-million population.
He has pledged to create jobs, improve education and battle social inequalities in Haiti, the poorest and one of the most violent nations in the western hemisphere.
”Children must be taken off the streets. Weapons must be taken from the hands of children and replaced with pens and books,” he said.
”The rich are cloistered in their walled villas and the poor are crammed into slums and own nothing. The gap is too big,” he added.
He stressed that he opposed ”a military solution” to the violence in Haiti’s notorious slums.
He said the 9 500-strong UN military and police force should leave as soon as possible, but not until Haitian forces can provide stability.
Préval led Haiti from 1996 to 2001, following Aristide’s first term. He was the second democratically elected president in Haiti’s 200-year history, winning 89% of the vote in elections boycotted by several parties.
He was praised as an honest and efficient administrator, but critics said he merely kept the seat warm for Aristide, who was prevented by the Constitution from seeking a second consecutive term.
In February 2001, Préval handed back the sash of office to Aristide, who won another term in office at the ballot box.
Préval had served as prime minister in Aristide’s first administration, from February 1991 until the government was toppled in September that year.
Following the coup, he sought refuge at the French and Mexican embassies in Port-au-Prince, and eventually joined Aristide in Washington, where he stayed until 1994.
Born on January 17, 1943 in Port-au-Prince, Préval studied agronomy in Belgium. He lived for five years in Brooklyn, New York in the 1970s.
After he returned to Haiti in 1975, he got a job with the National Institute for Mineral Resources.
He later became active in humanitarian agencies, including an orphanage in Port-au-Prince run by Aristide who was then a Roman Catholic priest, and played a key role in Aristide’s first electoral campaign. – AFP
