MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former associate of ousted president leads Haiti election

Former President Rene Preval and once a close political associate of ousted Jean-Bertrand Aristede, was leading in Wednesday's vote count of Haiti's Tuesday elections accumulating a big lead over his rivals.

Mr. Preval was followed by Leslie Manigat, also a former president and further back independent businessman Charles Baker.

Preliminary voting data in the hands of the United Nations observers shows that Preval is approaching the absolute majority ? 50% plus one vote - needed to avoid a runoff. Voter turnout in the Haiti election exceeded 70% according to the same officials.

The National Observer Network, RON, which is the organization that has deployed most observers to oversee the voting, had on hand 5,000 people trained by the U.S. National Democratic Institute, an organization specializing in election monitoring.

RON observers feel that, despite the difficulties encountered mainly in the capital Port-au-Prince by the extremely heavy voter turnout, the results will eventually be judged acceptable in terms of liberty, fairness and transparency.

The organization said that some polling places remained open until 10 p.m. on Tuesday, despite having been scheduled to close simultaneously with all the nation's other precincts six hours earlier.

"But this allowed all citizens who wanted to vote to do so. Many had formed huge queues (at polling places) all day long" said a member of the network.

In a special release from New York UN Secretary General Kofi Annan congratulated the Haitian people for their "commitment to democratically and peacefully elect their future leader".

Annan emphasized the "non violence" election day and promised that the international community will continue to support the people of Haiti on their path to normalization, stability and development".

Mr. Preval who was Aristide's prime minister in 1991 and the country's democratically elected president from 1996-2001 ran in the election as the candidate of the recently-formed Hope Party.

The 63-year-old agriculture expert was a leader in the Lavalas Family party founded by Aristide, who was forced to leave the country in February 2004 by United States and France alleging a chaotic internal situation. He was replaced by a provisional government, supported by a strong contingent of United Nations peace keeping forces that worked toward holding national elections. After several postponements last year because of internal strife and a slow registering process by United Nations, elections were finally held Tuesday. A total 3.5 million Haitians were finally registered to vote.

Preval however, refused to accept any help from the Lavalas Family party in the campaign and has tried to distance himself personally and politically from the deposed Aristide, according to several of his closest associates.

According to local Haiti sources Preval "has had several meetings with representatives of the Haitian middle class to get their support and make sure that his future government is viable and can function". For these elections, Preval has had the support of a number of former Aristide followers who publicly have called on voters to cast their ballots for him.

Manigat, a 76-year-old mathematics and history professor who was president from February to June 1988 and deposed in a military coup, ran as candidate for the Progressist National Democratic Group or RDNP.

A total of thirty-three candidates ran for president of Haiti on Tuesday and another 1.300 candidates are disputing 30 Senate and 99 lower house seats.

French speaking Haiti with an almost total black population is the poorest country in Latinamerica. Furthermore the country is considered an environment disaster.