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<h1><b>HIP predicts Preval winner in Haiti with 63% of the
vote</b></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/2_8_6.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/2_8_6.html<br>
</a><b>Wednesday, February 28, 2006 - 9:00 PM Haiti Time<br><br>
HIP - Haiti</b> Based upon exit polls and initial results, the <b>Haiti
Information Project</b> (HIP) predicts that Rene Garcia Preval has won
the presidency of Haiti with a handy 63% of the vote.<br><br>
Rene Garcia Preval was the former prime minister for six months under
Aristide's first administration before a brutal military coup in
September 1991. An agronomist educated in Europe, he is also a former
president of Haiti whose term ran from 1996 to 2001.<br><br>
Preval's closest rival in the electoral contest, industrialist Charles
Henry Baker, is not expected to poll with more than 10%. Leslie Manigat,
a former president elected as a military favorite in 1988, actually
polled ahead of Baker with an estimated 13% of the votes
tabulated.<br><br>
Baker represents the movement that ousted president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004. His defeat, and Preval's victory, signals the
end of a U.S.-installed government backed by the United Nations that is
accused of widespread human rights abuses including summary executions
and false imprisonment.<br><br>
Throughout the capital and during yesterday's elections, most of those
interviewed by HIP saw a vote for Preval as a vote for the return of
Aristide.<br><br>
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