Leslie Manigat Elected President of Haiti in Military-Run Elections

Leslie François Manigat (born August 13, 1930 in Port-au-Prince) was elected president of Haiti by a tightly controlled military held election in January 1988.

According to the Provisional Electoral Council (Conseil Electoral Provisoire, or CEP) he won the presidential election of January 17, 1988 with 50.29% of the votes, defeating ten other candidates. However, voter turnout was well under 10%. Few historians and vote monitors consider this election to have been democratic. He was inaugurated on February 7, 1988, but was overthrown by Gen. Henri Namphy on June 20, 1988. He ran for president again in the February 2006 election but was defeated, receiving 12.40% of the vote and placing a distant second behind René Préval‎.

Officials declared today that university professor Leslie Manigat won last week's presidential election with 50.3 percent of the vote.

Opposition and church leaders repeated claims that the military-led transitional government had rigged the vote to set up a figurehead president behind which the Army could retain real power. The three-man ruling council, led by Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy, has promised to hand power to an elected president on Feb. 7, two years after the fall of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier.