HAITI: President Rene Preval takes office, the first democratically elected leader since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted more than two years ago

Record ID: 872928

  • Title: HAITI: President Rene Preval takes office, the first democratically elected leader since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted more than two years ago
  • Date: 15th May 2006
  • Summary: (BN14) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (MAY 14, 2006) (REUTERS) WIDE SHOT EXTERIOR OF LEGISLATIVE PALACE; WIDE CROWDS OUTSIDE THE PALACE; BAND PLAYING (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 30th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti
  • City:
  • Country: Haiti
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAI538SVKHEQFIFD3LRJZO7H96
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  • Story Text: Haitian President Rene Preval took office on Sunday (May 14, 2006), giving the poorest nation in the Americas its first democratically elected leader since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted more than two years ago.
    The voices of scores of people chanting for Aristide's return from exile in South Africa filtered into Parliament as Preval took the oath of office
    Sixty-three-year-old Preval served as president from 1996 to 2001. He took the place of a U.S.-backed interim administration appointed after Aristide fled Haiti in February 2004 in the face of an armed rebellion and under pressure from Washington and Paris to quit.
    No foreign leaders attended the inauguration but the guests included Canada's Haitian-born governor-general, Michaelle Jean, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the younger brother of the U.S. President, and actor Danny Glover.
    Joseph Lambert, speaker of the National Assembly turned the presidential sash over to Preval, a former Aristide protege who is the only leader in Haiti's 202-year history to win a democratic election, serve a full term and peacefully hand power to a successor.
    "I will respect the rights of all Haitians and I will make everyone respect those rights. I will do all I can so that the people of Haiti always remain a great people and the masters of their territory and so that they never lose the smallest piece of their country," said Preval as he took the oath.
    Preval took office more than two months after he was declared the winner of Haiti's chaotic February 7 presidential election, a vote he claimed was tainted by fraud.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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