HAITI-ELECTION/CELESTIN-RALLY Celestin leads pack in Haitian presidential race, and looks to turn the page for Haiti

Record ID: 135936

  • Title: HAITI-ELECTION/CELESTIN-RALLY Celestin leads pack in Haitian presidential race, and looks to turn the page for Haiti
  • Date: 23rd October 2015
  • Summary: WOMAN ON CAR WITH SHIRT FEATURING IMAGE OF CELESTIN AUTOMOBILE WITH IMAGES OF CELESTIN
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti
  • Country: Haiti
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAB6VOMHEGA5WYXX1OUG6OJDH5Q
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Voters in Haiti go to the polls on Sunday (October 25) with ballot papers crammed with 54 candidates seeking to become the next president of the hemisphere's poorest country.
    The winner will most likely emerge from the top three candidates, led by Jude Celestin, a Swiss-educated mechanical engineer who headed a government construction agency and is running under the LAPEH Party (Alternative League for Progress and Emancipation of Haiti).
    "My priority is agriculture, is education, is political stability and when I spoke about political stability, we have a pact, it's an amnesty pact, but it's a political amnesty pact not an administrative pact, it's a political amnesty pact where we erase the boards and we say let's start from this point," the 53-year old candidate told Reuters in an interview.
    Celestin is supported by Wyclef Jean, the U.S.-based Haitian hip-hop star and one-time presidential aspirant, who produced a campaign song saying "the time has come" to end corruption as well as deforestation that has left the country's hillsides notoriously bare.
    The vote to succeed President Michel Martelly next February is being held in a climate without widespread security and a shrinking United Nations peacekeeping force. It also coincides with legislative and municipal elections.
    Martelly, a popular singer by profession, shook up the political order with his election victory in 2011 and accelerated rebuilding after a 2010 earthquake had levelled much of the capital. But critics say he failed to halt to corruption and political infighting, which has held back foreign investment over the last couple of years.
    Celestin said that extensive and diverse work experience made him an ideal choice for president.
    "I think that I am the most qualified because I am the most experienced candidate for the post. I have experience in the public administration, I have experience as an entrepreneur. I have experience as a teacher, I used to teach, I have experience working with people from the lower classes of Haiti and we used to work in the agriculture also, and this is the sum of things that can put me in the best position to be the President of Haiti, because my experience," he said.
    Celestin missed the runoff in controversial presidential elections in 2010, but says his experience as a former government executive better qualifies him to lead Haiti's anemic economy.
    The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti already struggles to feed its population of 10.4 million, and 600,000 Haitians already rely on international food aid to survive, according to the United Nations.
    A runoff for the presidential race between the top two candidates is scheduled for Dec 27.
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