Word: prevalant
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...ideal solution, but at least the one announced by Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) Thursday reflects the clear presidential choice of the Haitian people: Rene Garcia Preval was just below the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a runoff when the vote was halted Tuesday - after Preval had threatened a legal battle over charges of massive fraud, citing tens of thousands of ineligible and blank ballots. His point was underscored later on Tuesday when supporters discovered thousands of apparently legitimate ballot papers and electoral material containing votes for Preval that had been tossed in a dump just outside...
...Preval met the CEP on Wednesday, and negotiated a technical solution: The total total number of blank votes would be divided between the 33 candidates on the basis of the percentage of the counted vote accrued by each. That formula pushed Mr. Preval - who even by the CEP's count had won more than four times the number of votes of his nearest rival - over the 50 percent mark, and prompted a massive celebration by hundreds of thousands of supporters had taken to the streets in protest to defend their vote...
Haiti's pre-Carnival bands were out with their usual fanfare on Sunday night, but by Monday morning the crowds were back on the street in a different mood. The news that the latest electoral results showed that front-runner Rene Preval's lead had dropped slightly below the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff was greeted with barricades of burning tires that shut down the city, as his supporters demanded that electoral officials certify that Preval was the undisputed winner. Even members of the provisional electoral council and some independent observers questioned the tabulation procedure, fueling the anger...
...Preval critics responded to the initial protests by accusing Preval of using the same tactics as the former ally from whom he has tried to distance himself, Jean Bertrand Aristide. Two years ago, armed Aristide supporters violently shut down the capital when they felt his presidency was being threatened. "Business as usual," was how the new street protests were described by lawyer Carol Chalmers, a close associate of presidential hopeful Leslie Manigat, who is running a distant second to Preval at just under 12 percent. Another presidential candidate, Charles Henri Baker, echoed the same war cry, and vowed...
...absence of arms and of violence. It was the second time in a week that thousands of people were out manifesting their freedom of speech - the first time was at the polls on February 7. And Monday ended quietly, with the crowds dispersing peacefully, waiting to hear from Preval, who had returned to the capital aboard a United Nations helicopter from his hometown of Marmelade, where he'd spent the last week. Preval spent several hours in the National Palace meeting with his advisers, some of whom urged him to hold out for an independent electoral investigation before he accepts...