Many Haitians appear as reluctant to replace their popular president as he is about to leave office. Nonetheless, they are charged today with electing a new leader to shore up their fragile democracy.

Constitutionally barred from succeeding himself, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide waited until Friday, the final day of campaigning, to endorse the man expected to handily win the balloting.

His pick, Rene Preval, ended a three-week, lackluster campaign held under Aristide’s shadow by saying he was ill and canceling a grand finale of rallies in Port-au-Prince.

The illness of the 52-year-old agronomist and onetime bakery owner may have been a ploy to avoid the possibility of violence. There has been relatively little during the campaign, but even so, a man with a knife was arrested at a Preval rally on Thursday, and leaflets scattered about the capital call him a traitor who tried to poison Aristide.

The near-certainty of Preval’s victory, the lack of strong candidates and the brevity of the campaign took much of the excitement out of the election.

Campaigning also was overshadowed by demands from Aristide militants that he stay on for three years to regain the time lost in exile after military leaders ousted him. Aristide sowed confusion among his followers by appearing at times to be flirting with the idea.