Report: Musician Martelly wins Haiti presidency

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Musician Michel Martelly has won Haiti's presidential election, according to preliminary results to be officially announced later Monday, reports Reuters.

The electoral council was supposed to release preliminary results on March 31. But officials said they had to delay the announcement to give observers more time to review suspected fraudulent ballots. Final results are scheduled to be released on April 16.

Martelly was pitted against former first lady Mirlande Manigat in a race to replace President Rene Preval, barred from running for a third term under the constitution.

Martelly, widely known by his stage name "Sweet Micky," is a first-time political candidate. Manigat is a university administrator and former senator. Either will face a challenging environment that includes a Senate and Chamber of Deputies controlled by Preval's party and widespread anger over the slow progress of reconstruction from the January 2010 earthquake.

Police patrolled the streets and businesses boarded up windows Monday as Haitians awaited the delayed preliminary results from last month's presidential election.

The extra police presence, a combination of Haitian national police and U.N. peacekeepers, was intended to prevent a repeat of the violence that followed the December announcement of the apparent winners from the first round.

Much of Haiti was paralyzed by riots after the council announced first-round results that excluded Martelly from the runoff. The Organization of American States later determined those results were incorrect and the musician had come in second and gained a spot in the second ballot.

"We're waiting for the results but people may not accept them," said Wilno Jean-Baptiste, 30, a supermarket employee on his way to work. "It's possible we could have chaos again."