Election Won by Manigat, Haiti Declares

Leslie F. Manigat, said to be the choice of Haiti’s military government, Sunday was declared the winner of the controversial Jan. 17 presidential election with just over 50% of the vote, according to official results.

The ruling junta’s Electoral Commission said that Manigat, a 57-year-old political science professor and former exile, won 50.39% of the votes cast by the 1,059,087 Haitians, or 35.32% of registered voters, who took part.

Critics of the election, boycotted by the country’s most popular politicians, had said that only a tiny minority of Haiti’s registered voters had gone to the polls. The voting was branded a farce by a number of ex-presidential candidates as well as foreign observers because of brazen vote rigging.

The elections, for president as well as legislative and local posts, was scheduled after Haiti’s first free elections in three decades on Nov. 29 were aborted when rampaging gunmen killed at least 34 people at polling places.