Martelly victorious in Haiti election

Musician Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly has scored a come-from-behind victory in Haiti's presidential runoff, according to preliminary results from last month's election showing he easily defeated a former first lady for the leadership of a country facing enormous challenges.

Martelly, who has never held political office, received nearly 68 percent of the vote in the two-way race with Mirlande Manigat, electoral council spokesman Pierre Thibault said in an announcement that was immediately followed by noisy celebration in the Haitian capital.

Thousands of Martelly supporters poured into the streets of Port-au-Prince, carrying Martelly posters, climbing on to cars and cheering. A huge crowd of singing and chanting supporters marched to his house.

"Today is a big day for me," Jeanor Destine, 22, said as he ran through the streets. "We're finished with the old government and want to bring in a new government. We've been through so much misery. That's why we're supporting Martelly."

The popular musician, a star of the Haitian genre known as compas, had trailed Manigat in the crowded first-round election in November. But his campaign gained momentum in the second round, with many voters seemingly enchanted with his lack of political experience in a country where the government has failed to provide basic services.

In a message posted in Creole on Twitter, the popular musician thanked his supporters: "Thank you for your confidence ... We're going to work for all Haitians. Together we can."

Haiti's electoral council said that about 23 percent of the 4.7 million registered voters cast ballots. Serge Audate, an elections official, said about 15 percent of the tally sheets had problems suggesting possible fraud, including cases in which more votes were cast than registered voters in some polling stations, and had to be quarantined. Final results are to be announced April 16.

Still, the fact that the results were not yet final did not deter jubilant supporters.

"I'm going to celebrate with the people, then I'm going home to my kids," Wilson Goren, a 32-year-old street vendor, said as fireworks erupted around him after the results were announced.

Martelly's campaign for president seemed at first like an afterthought, overshadowed by the short-lived campaign of the better-known star star Wyclef Jean, who was declared inelgible to run.

Many said that Martelly's history of crude onstage antics would prevent him from winning. Indeed, Manigat, a university administrator and former senator, and her supporters made much of it during the campaign by stressing her "morality" and urging people to call her "mother."

But the 50-year-old Martelly turned out to be a serious and skilled candidate. When initial results of the flawed first round showed he was out of the race, he mobilised supporters to protest as if he were a veteran of Haiti's rough politics. He ran a disciplined campaign, deftly depicting himself as an outsider and neophyte even though he has long been active in politics.

He promised profound change for Haiti, vowing to provide free education in a country where more than half the children can't afford school and to create economic opportunity amid almost universal unemployment.