U.S. PLEDGES SUPPORT POPULIST PRIEST SWEEPS HAITIAN ELECTION.(Main)

Byline: Don A. Schanche Los Angeles Times

Unofficial returns Monday showed populist priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide winning Haiti's presidential election by a landslide, bringing an immediate pledge of support from the United States.

"We congratulated him on his victory and told him the U.S. fully supports the democratic process in Haiti," said Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Bernard Aronson, representing President Bush's official observer delegation to the relatively peaceful Sunday election.

Aristide's radical posture and anti- American rhetoric initially had worried U.S. officials. Before becoming a candidate, the charismatic priest continually called on his nation's poor to take matters into their own hands rather than trust to …