By Trenton DanielPORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's most popular politician and likely winner of Sunday's presidential election, said on Monday he was determined to ''bring peace to all Haitians'' and denied charges he was building a dictatorship.
Emerging from five years of virtual seclusion at a news conference packed with Haitian and foreign journalists, Aristide said opposition parties that boycotted the presidential election and have condemned his probable victory were indispensable to building a democratic Haiti.
``There is no way for Haiti to go back to dictatorship. I believe that,'' Aristide said. ``They (opposition parties) have the right to talk, the right to criticize. It's part of the process of learning to build a democratic society,'' he added.
``To have a peaceful Haiti, the opposition is indispensable. There is no way for a democratic society to move ahead with one party. We know it.''
The former Roman Catholic priest was swept from his pulpit in Haiti's teeming slums on a wave of grass-roots support to first win the presidency in 1990. He faces a rocky road in his second turn at the helm of the Caribbean nation, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
Although the final vote count is not expected until Tuesday or Wednesday, Aristide is generally believed to have won easily against six relatively unknown challengers who did not campaign due to preelection violence.
A country with a short history of democracy following decades of military rule, Haiti and its 7.8 million people won a victory of sorts by managing an election relatively free of violence after a weeklong pipe-bombing campaign that killed two children.
The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), which organized the vote, said voter turnout was 60.5 percent of some 4 million eligible voters.
But local observers and diplomatic sources scoffed at that figure. Opposition parties estimated turnout at less than 5 percent, called the election a farce and have suggested they may push for a new vote early in the new year.
Aristide has rarely been seen in recent years, staying for the most part at his luxury home in a walled compound in upscale Tabarre north of the capital. But he emerged to meet the press at his nearby Aristide Foundation while supporters danced in the parking lot outside and celebrated at rallies around the capital.
PLANS TO BUILD A ``NATION OF LOVE''
Aristide told journalists his Lavalas Family party, which will hold the presidency and an overwhelming majority in parliament after his Feb. 7 inauguration, would build a ``nation of love rooted in the democratic process'' and would search for ways to ``bring peace to all Haitians, without distinction.''
Aristide said he had a plan to create 500,000 jobs, but gave no details.
Asked how he would mend fences with the United States, the European Union and other friendly nations that refused to support the election because they say the calculation of results in parliamentary elections earlier this year was flawed, Aristide said he was ready to talk.
``We have problems which will be addressed among Haitians. That means we have to protect our dignity,'' he said. ``It's a way to say we will not wait for the international community to bring solutions to Haitians.''
Haiti is in desperate need of solutions. The average annual income is about $400 per person and 62 percent of Haitians are underfed.
With the government virtually paralyzed during the term of President Rene Preval, Aristide's handpicked successor who won the presidency in 1995, tens of millions of dollars in available international aid has gone astray.
Analysts say Aristide needs to move quickly toward market reforms and revive a program begun years ago to privatize national industries like the telephone company to bring the allies back to Haiti's side.
``Virtually everything he's done has shown a lack of international vision, awareness of his need to keep the support of his benefactors outside,'' said Harvard political scientist Robert Rotberg. ``I think he's reckoned that he knows what's right for Haiti and the rest can go stuff it.''
