Istwa Nou

Haiti's first direct presidential election was held on 8 October 1950 under rules written by a military junta and supervised by the army. Paul Magloire had the Church, the officer corps, the commercial elite and a discreet nod from the American embassy. His only organised opposition came from the communists around Nere Numa and Georges Petit. When Daniel Fignole raised the will of the people, Magloire answered him in Creole that two forces counted in this country, the army and the elite. The one other name on the ballot was an obscure architect running as Estime's heir. Rain flooded the roads, and voters walked through mud or rode burros to more than six hundred polling stations. Port-au-Prince returned 25,679 for Magloire, seven for Fenelon Alphonse and three for Papa Legba, the lwa who stands at the crossroads and opens the way. Magloire was declared the winner on 10 October with ninety nine percent. Newsweek reported that the figure probably did reflect what Haitians thought of him.

Paul Magloire took office on 6 December 1950 after three days of celebration, with Franck Lavaud handing power to an elected president for the second time in four years. An assembly at Gonaives under Dantes Bellegarde had finished a new constitution, adopted on 28 November, from which the Estime era ban on serving officers holding political office had been removed. Magloire was forty two, a black officer from Quartier Morin, orderly, fond of display, and one of his first acts was to put the presidential guard into dress blues. He kept horses and filled the army stables with officers' mounts. He made no war on the mulatto elite and mixed across the colour line more freely than any Haitian ruler before him. He moved between parties without escort, played cards at the clubs, and hosted Sunday baccarat and whiskey at La Boule until a popular song grew up about the drinking. He was awake with the roosters and at his desk for the eight o'clock colours.