Port-au-Prince, Haiti

‘Sweet Micky’ is president: Haitian youths held dance parties in the streets this week after Michel Martelly, the carnival singer known as “Sweet Micky,” was declared the winner of Haiti’s presidential runoff. Preliminary results showed Martelly beating former First Lady Mirlande Manigat in a landslide, with more than two thirds of the vote. It was quite a comeback for the singer, who initially didn’t make the runoff when the Election Council said he had placed third in the first round; it reversed that ruling after international observers said the count was blatantly fraudulent. Martelly, known for his flamboyant singing act involving skirts, wigs, and his bare backside, ran on a promise that as a political outsider, he would reform Haiti’s corrupt and dysfunctional political system. He will now be in charge of handling billions of dollars in foreign aid and finding housing for some 800,000 people displaced by the catastrophic 2010 earthquake.

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