After much fanfare that a clean election had taken place in Haiti last weekend, social turmoil ensued as presidential aspirant, Rene Preval, appeared unable to win the election in the first round. Yesterday, the Haitian electoral council voted 7 to 2 to disqualify more than 80,000 blank ballots that were cast thus pushing Preval’s support to 51% and winning him the election, according to today’s Washington Post.
Winning the Haitian presidency will be more than a little challenging for Preval, despite the high level of support he received from the poor in the slums of Port-au-Prince. The first order of business for the president elect will be to assure security in this practically lawless land. Second, he must begin the process of rebuilding the economy by creating jobs and attracting investment to Haiti. This will be no small task, but one in which he can work with the business community to seek broad-based consensus for economic reforms that were set out several years ago in a national business agenda for the country. A private-public partnership for change through the newly created Investment Facilitation Center is one important local effort to improve the business environment of Haiti. These and other innovative solutions that are being discussed in the private sector could take the new president a long way toward lifting this country out of dire poverty and bolstering the democratic institutions that the country so desperately needs to reinforce.
Published Date: February 17, 2006