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Friday, February 17, 2006 




Posted on Fri, Feb. 17, 2006

Mr. Préval wins Haiti's presidency

OUR OPINION: NEGOTIATION, COMPROMISE GOOD LESSON FOR HAITIAN POLITICS

Haiti's new president has his work cut out for him. René Préval was the clear choice of the Haitian people. Yes, a smoother election and vote count would have been preferable. But, ultimately, negotiation and compromise sealed Mr. Préval's victory. This ended an electoral crisis and the potential for violence.

For the first time in years, Haiti has reason for hope. While deep-rooted problems won't disappear overnight, a legitimate government, backed by the international community, could begin to address security, the economy and other challenges.

Mr. Préval will stand an better chance of turning the nation around if he can rally Haiti's political and business leaders, even those who opposed him, to unify behind a common agenda. The electoral crisis provides a good lesson in how to resolve political differences for the sake of the greater good through negotiation and compromise.

A clear majority

Though exit polls appeared to show that Mr. Préval had won a clear majority, his margin fell below 50 percent as the count neared an end. Urgency mounted after thousands of ballots appeared in a Port-au-Prince dump, raising suspicions of vote fraud. Largely peaceful protests threatened to spiral out of control.

In fact, electoral authorities had found problems with large numbers of missing, invalidated and blank ballots. Negotiations ensued among officials from Haiti's interim government, its electoral council, the U.N. mission, Mr. Préval's party and international diplomats. The solution that assured Mr. Préval's win used an electoral loophole to proportionately allocate blank votes -- most of which were believed to be unused ballots mistakenly included in the count -- among the 33 candidates.

Sensible approach

A former president, Mr. Préval will have a chance to show how much better he can do now outside the shadow of his former ally, ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. One thorny issue involves disarming violent slum gangs, many of which appeared to support his candidacy, that terrorize much of Port-au-Prince and hurt commerce. In an earlier interview with The Miami Herald, Mr. Préval described a sensible approach combining police action along with ''massive social investment'' that would provide jobs and isolate the ``criminals.''

Mr. Préval will not lack issues to tackle. Haiti needs to clean up its police force and judiciary; to get tons of illegal weapons off the streets, with U.N. help; to rebuild all basic systems, from education and healthcare to utilities and roads. Haiti needs to heal its fractured society.

Copyright 2006 Knight Ridder

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