Preval familiar with Haiti’s challenges

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti’s new president, Rene Preval, faces the mammoth task of moving his country out of chaos, crime and crushing poverty, but at least all the challenges are familiar.

The shy, soft-spoken agronomist led Haiti from 1996 to 2001, a period of relative calm between the two presidential terms of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was twice ousted by rebellious mobs. Preval is the only democratically elected Haitian president to finish the five-year term.

“We will not be able to do everything right away,” Preval told the Associated Press in his northern village of Marmelade on the eve of the Feb. 7 election. “But we are determined to do our best and raise the standard of living for the people of Haiti.”

The 63-year-old Preval was declared the winner Thursday, staving off a potential crisis after days of protests by his supporters who alleged fraud and manipulation when initial vote tallies showed a runoff might be needed.

Preval studied in Belgium as a young man, then returned to Haiti in the 1970s and became active in the movement to oust the Duvalier dictatorship. After the fall of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier in 1986, he became a close ally of Aristide, a liberation theologist hugely popular among the poor. Preval was named prime minister after Aristide was elected president in 1990. Aristide referred to the president-elect as his “twin.”

Preval’s election in 1996 marked the first peaceful transition from one democratically elected president to another since Haiti won independence in 1804. Many felt he served as a placeholder president from 1996 to 2001 for his more dynamic mentor.

When he took office in 1996, Preval vowed to turn Haiti into “a vast construction site” and “re-establish the authority of the state.” He now acknowledges that he largely failed, but said he struggled against corruption and had some modest accomplishments, such as privatizing the state-run flour mill and cement factory.