Jovenel Moise has won the Haiti November 20
th Presidential election, ending the protracted electoral paralysis that had gripped Caribbean country's politics for a year and more.
Haiti provisional electoral council on 3rd Jan 2016 indicated Moise was the majority winner with 55.6 percent of the votes, turnout being low at 21 percent.
Moise, a previously little known businessman ran on behalf of the Tet Kale party of former president Michel Martelly who ended term without an elected successor.
But Moise's major challengers - Jude Celestin, Jean-Charles Moise and Maryse Narcisse - also contested the preliminary results of the latest elections.
The final official results gave runner-up Celestin 19.57 percent, Jean-Charles Moise 11.04 percent and Narcisse 9.01 percent. Moise lacks popular support with just 21 percent of voters participating in the electoral process.
48-year-old Moise runs a banana export company; Setting it as a model for rural development, on the campaign trial he popularised himself as Banana Man.
He is to be sworn in on Feb 7, 2017 taking over from interim president Jocelerme Privert who came to power in 2016. An October 2015 vote saw Moise win but an independent commission found massive fraud. Moise came first, defeating 26 other candidates.
Moise's closest rival had 19.5 percent of the votes, according to council spokesperson Nicole Simeon. Supporters of other leading candidates marched in the capital's streets in protest of the electoral council's decision.
Fanmi Lavalas party supporters called for the placement of their candidate as president instead, while supporters of left-wing candidate Jean-Charles Moise also led protests after initial results were released in October, 2015.
Know More About Haiti- Capital: Port-au-Prince
- Currency: Haitian gourde
- Population: 10.32 million (2013) World Bank
- Official languages: French, Haitian Creole French
- Struggling to rebuild after hurricane in 2010, the country suffered major losses since.
- More than 60 percent of people living in Haiti survive with less than two dollars per day.
- Haiti has a debt of more than $2 billion.
- Growth is expected to be just one percent in 2017, due to a lack of public and private investment.
- In early October, Hurricane Matthew left damage of more than $2 billion in the south of the country.
