I got this from Reuters.

Brazil, which heads a peacekeeping force of 9,000 U.N. troops and police, brokered the deal to distribute 85,000 "blank" votes, which showed no choice for president out of the 33 candidates, proportionately among the contenders.

The blanks, amounting to 4.7 percent of the total, had been included in accordance with the law and reduced the final percentage allocated to each candidate.

With 90 percent of the ballots counted, Preval had been at 48.7 percent -- below the simple majority he needed to avoid a March 19 runoff and outraging his supporters.

Many Haitians were suspicious of the large number of blank votes, saying they could not imagine people trekking miles (km) to polling stations simply to leave their ballots unmarked.

The U.N. mission sent to maintain the peace in Haiti has also acknowledged that partisan election workers could have stuffed ballot boxes with blank ballots.

The agreement over the blank votes lifted Preval's share to 50.9 percent.

You know what, though? I doubt it's over...not when articles with evocative titles like Joy greets Preval victory in violent Haiti slum are making the rounds

Amaral Duclona, a leader of the well-armed gangs and one of Haiti's most wanted men, said on Thursday that Preval's election would probably end the violence.

"We want peace and we are not taking up weapons against anybody in Cite Soleil," said Duclona, who roared through the slum on a motorcycle without his usual complement of bodyguards and did not appear to be carrying a weapon.

"We'll open the doors of Cite Soleil to anyone who wants to help Cite Soleil out of its misery," he told Reuters. "We are going to work with the government to save Cite Soleil."

But when asked whether the gangs would lay down their arms, Duclona was more cautious than a fellow gang leader, Augudson Nicolas, who said last week that the gangs would hand over their weapons to Preval in a ceremony at the National Palace.

"The disarmament program should be done throughout the country, not only within Cite Soleil," Duclona said, a reference to the former soldiers and gangs who opposed Aristide and still hold sway in parts of Haiti.

"Well-armed gangs."

Preval's followers, being broke as hell, are no threat. Well armed gangs are.

In the mid-1990s, Aristide disbanded the country's anti-Aristide army and then built up a national police force of just 5,000 for a nation of 8 million. The police were no match for the better-armed rebels who rose up against Aristide in 2004.