Former President Leads In Haiti Voting

Rene Preval, the former protégé of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, held a commanding early lead in Haiti's presidential elections.

But election authorities said it might be Saturday before enough ballots are counted to draw conclusions about the race — called a key step toward steering this bloodied, impoverished nation away from collapse.

The streets of Port-au-Prince were quiet after the results were announced. Vote counting was to resume on Friday.

Preval, who made a point of saying in a recent interview that he has split with Aristide, had 61.5 percent of the 282,327 valid votes counted so far, the electoral council said Thursday. Former President Leslie Manigat had 13.4 percent and businessman Charles Henri Baker 6.1 percent, according to figures released by election officials.

Manigat, however, said early returns tallied by his party members showed Preval might win a majority of votes that would give him outright victory.

If the winning candidate lacks a majority of votes, he and the second-place finisher would go against each other in a March runoff.

"There is a tiny chance that we will have a second round, but I fear Preval has made a clean sweep of the votes," Manigat said.

Preval, speaking on the porch of his family home in Marmelade, a rural northern town, said he was marking time and catching up on sleep until official results are out.

"My work is over," Preval said. "I'm waiting."

"The election holds out hope that Haiti can begin to dig out of extreme poverty," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk, "because former President Rene Preval appears to have won by a commanding margin and because he focused on improving the economy."

"Preval made a point during the campaign of including the business community and distancing himself from the violence associated with former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, with whom he had served," Falk added, "and with 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers to ensure a legitimate election, Haiti may now begin a long process of recovery from hurricanes, disease and hunger."

Preval faces monumental tasks if he wins the presidency of the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

Most Haitians can't read or write, and subsist on about a dollar a day. A wave of kidnappings by heavily armed gangs has swept the capital. Amid the insecurity, assembly plants are closing, causing the losses of thousands of jobs. Donor nations are hesitant to contribute money because of a legacy of government corruption.

Preval, president from 1996-2001, promises to make restoring security to Port-au-Prince a priority if elected. He says he wants to jail the worst of the criminals but start a dialogue with the rank-and-file gangsters, many of whom support Aristide.

The 63-year-old agronomist stood for years in the shadow of Aristide, his dominating predecessor. Aristide, who referred to Preval as his "twin," was ousted amid accusations he ordered gangsters to attack opponents and pocketed millions of dollars.

Preval says he will govern without being influenced by Aristide, who is in exile in South Africa.

"If I'm his 'twin,' we do not have the same mother," he told the AP. Preval pointed out that nothing can legally prevent Aristide from returning to Haiti, but added that he may have to face a trial.

Preval's own tenure as president was less than stellar. His efforts at agrarian reform failed because landless peasants who received land couldn't live on the small amount they were given. He clashed with parliament over the legitimacy of the legislators who won contested elections. Human rights advocates accused him of interfering in the judicial system and of politicizing the police force.

But poor Haitians remember that Preval tried to help them. Even the smaller efforts are remembered by those whose plight was ignored by a series of governments and dictatorships.

"He built the big marketplace downtown. He fixed it so that the vendors could get out of the mud," said Yves Valea, a 70-year-old street sweeper.

In Cite Soleil, a slum ruled by gangs that have grown stronger since a rebellion ousted Aristide two years ago, a dozen jobless youths stood idle outside decrepit storefronts plastered with Preval campaign posters. Some of the young men shouted: "Long live Preval!"

Israel Privil, a 40-year-old shoe repairman standing nearby, proudly pointed to his ink-stained thumb, proof he had voted on Tuesday.

"I voted for Preval because I was without hope," he said. "When Preval was in power, there were agricultural jobs and more programs for the peasants. We hope that if he becomes president he'll continue that work."

When he stepped down after serving out his five-year term, Preval was the only Haitian president to have completed his term. He said he decided to run for the presidency after 1,000 peasants from all over the country came to see him in July and urged him to run.

Preval would have a fresh start in relations with Washington, said Robert Fatton, a political science professor at the University of Virginia.

"When (Preval) was president, the U.S. did not necessarily think he was a bad man, but they considered he had his hands tied up by Aristide," Fatton said in a telephone interview. "The U.S. now believes Preval is his own man."