BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Rene Preval was declared Haitian president on Thursday after authorities changed the way blank ballots are counted, according to reports from Port-Au-Prince, the Haitian capital.

    Here is a brief introduction to the president-elect of Haiti, who previously led the country from 1996 to 2001.

    Born on Jan. 17, 1943 in Port-au-Prince, Preval lived for 10 years in the United States during the reign of Haiti's former dictator Jean-claude Duvalier in the 1970s, returning after his downfall in 1986.

    Preval, previously the owner of a bakery, headed from 1987 to 1991 a special panel to investigate the disappearance of many Haitians during Duvalier's reign.

    Preval served as prime minister as well as minister of defense and internal affairs in ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first administration from February 1991 until the government was toppled in September that year.

    On Dec. 17, 1995, Preval was elected president as candidate of the ruling Lavalas party. He took office on Feb. 7, 1996, and led Haiti for five years.

    In February 2001, Preval handed back the sash of office to Aristide, who had won another term in office.

    On Feb. 7, 2006, Preval ran for the L'Espwa (Hope) party in Haiti's first presidential and parliamentary elections after Aristide's ousting.

    The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced on Thursday that Preval had received 51.15 percent of the vote, based on the count from 96 percent of the country's voting stations, following a last-minute CEP decision to throw out 85,000 "blank" votes. Enditem