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 the nearly 931,000 valid votes cast 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 transfer of power from one popularly elected leader to another since it gained 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. 17 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.
The Organization of American States - which sent the largest share of 900 election observers - placed part of the blame for the low turnout on Aristide, who up to the last minute encouraged his followers to demand that he be allowed to stay to make up for the three years he lost in exile.
Among 14 presidential candidates, former National Police Chief Leon Jeune was a distant runner-up. He got 2.5 percent of votes, followed by Socialist Party leader Victor Benoit with 2.3 percent.
Twenty-one political parties boycotted the election, claiming the electoral council was biased in favor of Aristide's three-party Lavalas Platform.
Aristide - elected by a landslide in 1990 in an almost 100 percent voter turnout - blamed voter apathy on democracy's failure to resolve fundamental social and economic problems.
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.