Mountain of problems faces Haiti's new leader

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitian President-elect René Préval's victory Thursday after nine days of electoral chaos and street violence may have been the easy part. Now he must build a nation — starting with a sack of rice.

Amid grinding poverty, Préval must restore order, jump-start the economy and make the nation's emblematic staple again affordable to the vast majority of Haitians who live on less than $1 a day.

He will need to address the dire needs of the poor masses who backed his campaign, while reassuring the foreign donors who provide much of Haiti's finances that his government merits their dollars. And he must establish a working relationship with a prime minister who will be chosen by a parliament where his party is unlikely to hold a majority.

Then there's the critical issue of whether he will let former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a populist priest revered by the poorest of Haiti's poor, to return from exile in South Africa and regain influence.

"Every single thing he has to do is a massive, complicated headache," said Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert and political science professor at the University of Virginia. "But he has a chance, however small, to begin to bridge the gap between poor and rich."

Préval's first presidential term, 1996-2001, is generally considered to have been lackluster. His few modest accomplishments were overshadowed by complaints of human-rights abuses and a paralyzing political crisis brought on by allegations of voter fraud in the 2000 parliamentary elections.

Still, the soft-spoken agronomist is far different from the fiery Aristide. He tends to act like a low-key bureaucrat, focusing on small- and medium-scale projects.

But today's Haiti is far different, and far worse off. Its judicial, health-care and police systems have all but collapsed. Most of its bright minds have left, and electricity and roads are sorely needed. Even the price of rice, a staple of the Haitian diet, has gone up and is out of reach for the vast majority of poor Haitians. It is $31 for a 110-pound sack, compared with $22.50 shortly before Aristide left two years ago.

"I don't think he has the leadership to do it," said Gervais Charles, an attorney for Group 184, the coalition of business and social groups that helped force Aristide's 2004 ouster. "Préval is very average."

The first test, both Haitian and international observers say, will come as Préval picks his prime minister and Cabinet. Pressure is mounting for him to establish a unity government by choosing either someone from the opposition or the business elite for the powerful prime minister's post — what could be the first step toward reconciliation in this deeply polarized Caribbean nation.

"He's regarded as a reasonable guy and I think he is prepared to reach across to the opposition," said Roger Noriega, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Préval will inherit some projects already started by Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government, which started to build and repair roads with some of $500 million in international aid pumped into Haiti since Aristide's ouster.

Despite those projects, the country remains a mess. Only an estimated 250,000 Haitians out of an eligible workforce of 5 million are employed in formal jobs. The rest eke out a living through anything from farming to selling chewing gum by roadsides.

Job creation, many Haitians say, must be the top priority of the Préval administration. The number of jobs at duty-free assembly plants, once a key sector of the economy, has dropped over the past two decades by about 40,000 from a high of 60,000. At the same time, the purchasing power of everyday Haitians is the same today as it was in 1955.