MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Haitian election authorities postpone release of official results

Haitian election authorities on Sunday evening were said to have postponed the announcement of official results from last week's presidential election, while tens of thousands of street demonstrators celebrated what they were certain would be candidate Rene Preval's first-round victory.

In an official communique released through Television Nacional, Provisional Electoral Council chief Max Mathurin had promised that official election results would be made public "Sunday night" but late-breaking word hitting the wires about 0020 GMT Monday morning was that election authorities had decided to delay the official announcement of the results. No further details were available as this story went to press.

As they had done on Saturday, throughout the day on Sunday thousands of people turned out to celebrate the anticipated win by the Hope Party candidate, who in his first public statement after last Tuesday's election, said that his government would be a "transition" administration for the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

Demonstrators moved through the neighborhood of Delmas, in Port-au-Prince's northern suburbs to the Electoral Council's local headquarters, where they loudly proclaimed Preval - who served as president from 1996-2001 - this country's leader once again.

They carried posters with the photograph of the 63-year-old agronomist, who - according to partial results released by election authorities - has garnered 49.10 percent of the votes in the preliminary count, although not the absolute majority required to avoid a runoff.

The celebrating Preval supporters then directed themselves toward the downtown area to continue their demonstration before the presidential palace. The police and the blue-helmeted members of the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed here were nowhere in evidence as the crowd moved through the city.

Since the election, Preval has been keeping a very low profile with close aides at his residence in the northern city of Marmelade, but on Sunday he told journalists - without specifically saying he expected a first-round victory - that his would be a "transition" presidency and that his first objective would be for "security and peace" in Haiti to attract foreign investment to the country.

Leslie Manigat, of the Progressist National Democratic Group received - according to the preliminary vote count of 75.81 percent of the ballots - 11.72 percent of the votes and independent businessman Charles Baker was in third place with 8.02 percent. Thirty-three candidates vied for Haiti's leadership post in the elections, and 129 congressional seats were also up for grabs.

According to the initial election results released Thursday evening by the CEP, Preval had received 65.09 percent of the votes with slightly more than 30 percent of the ballots counted in the country's largest and most populous western region, which includes Port-au-Prince.

Because Preval does not have the same support in other areas of the country that he enjoys in capital, some analysts predicted that as votes were counted in more remote areas his percentage of the ballots will fall further and a runoff will be necessary.

In fact, as later results were released, or leaked out, it did appear that Preval's absolute majority had dissipated, but it was not clear whether a runoff would be in the cards. On Friday, CEP director-general Jacques Bernard said voter participation was unprecedented; noting that "with something more than 50 percent of the votes counted, the number of voters surpassed 1.1 million," out of a total of 3.5 million eligible voters. According to the latest results, Preval was leading in all but one of Haiti's 10 provinces. In the country's northwest, he was in a virtual deadlock with Luc Fleurinord, both with roughly 22 percent of the vote with 61 percent of the ballots counted.

In Haiti's western region, home to 40 percent of the electorate, Preval had obtained 60.77 percent of the vote with some 72 percent of the ballots tabulated.

Postponed four times, the elections were called by the provisional government installed in February 2004 after the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, now living in exile in South Africa.

Preval, a one-time political protege of Aristide, has made efforts to distance himself from the controversial former priest. Preval was appointed prime minister by Aristide in 1991 and was then democratically elected president in his own right five years later. In the election race, Preval enjoyed widespread support in Cite Soleil, which is known as a stronghold of armed groups loyal to Aristide.

Amid the demonstrations in Cite Soleil on Saturday, which transpired without any violence or injuries, although some gunshots were heard, Election Council secretary-general Rosemond Pradel issued an appeal for calm. He urged residents of the capital to not take part in demonstrations until the final results are released.