ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512270070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
SOURCE: Associated Press
Rene Preval was declared president-elect of Haiti on Saturday, winning hands down an election that most voters boycotted.
Preval received 87.9 percent of votes - 818,000 out of 994,000 - in the Dec. 17 election, the Provisional Electoral Council announced.
An agronomist, former premier and bakery owner, the left-leaning Preval, 52, was widely expected to win the vote riding on the popularity of his one-time friend, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
He is scheduled to replace Aristide on Feb. 7 in what American and Haitian officials tout as Haiti's first peaceful handover from one popularly elected leader to another since independence from France in 1804.
Many Haitians have been disappointed that their new political freedom has not improved living standards in one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere. Only 27.94 percent of 3.7 million eligible voters turned out for the Dec. 17th vote.
``This so-called democracy has left me where I was - in misery,'' said hotel waiter Jean Richard, 38. ``If the new president pulls me out of it, I'll vote again.''
It was the first presidential election since U.S. troops arrived in September 1994 to oust the violent military regime that overthrew Aristide in a 1991 coup.
Preval was Aristide's premier before the coup d'etat, but they fell out over Aristide's ambivalence about surrendering power.
Lacking Aristide's charisma and popular support, Preval still inherits his responsibility for Haiti's foundering economy, for its political antagonisms between right and left, and for the new national police force that will replace U.N. troops when they withdraw in February.
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Rene Preval/Inherits Haiti's woesby CNB