Mirlande Manigat, a woman in Haiti

She will face the singer Michel Martelly, March 20, in the second round of presidential elections. Focus on Mirlande Manigat, an intellectual recently entered the political arena.
  Backed by the middle classes and intellectuals, Mirlande Manigat, constitutional law professor and vice rector of the University Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince, has a disability compared to its rivals, it speaks more as a lawyer and political scientist in "Beast of rally." 
Daughter of a Haitian Army officer, she comes from a middle class family. After studying at the Ecole Normale Superieure she left for Paris where she earned in 1968 a Ph.D. in political science at the Sorbonne. In Paris she married Leslie Manigat, ten years his senior, who briefly became president in 1988 between two military coups. In 2006, she won a Senate seat but waives sit at the request of her husband, an unsuccessful candidate in the presidential election won by Rene Preval. She later took the head of the Rally of Progressive National Democrats (NPDR), Christian Democratic Party, under whose banner she comes to the election of 28 November, with the support of a group of lawmakers opposed to President Preval.
After the day after the election, called for its cancellation because of irregularities, she changes her mind, saying the fraud imputed to power up to the candidate Jude Celestin seem less serious than expected. Four days later, she refuses, as Michel Martelly came third, and six NGOs as observers to the election, a new recount of votes proposed by the electoral council. These last days, Mirlande Manigat rejected the idea of a second round of three proposed by Michel Martelly.
The battle of education
Admitting that she is part of the privileged, Mirlande Manigat declares to fight social injustice through education, his war horse. She was particularly concerned about young people: "Our youth is being wasted," she wrote on the site of NPDR.
She advocates constitutional changes, including removal of the ban on dual nationality, and encourages the participation of the Diaspora in the development and the country's political life. If elected, Mirlande Manigat asked the gradual departure of the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which she described as "occupying force".
It is supported by the Haitian Collective for the revival, which includes hundreds of active members or have already met and has the sympathy of women's organizations who hope to see the first woman elected to the presidency.
Pragmatism
Expressing attached to the constitution, the former first lady, has promised to work with the opposition and to cohabit with the party Inite ("Unit") of Jude Celestin, candidate of the ruling party, if the training was getting the majority Parliament.
His age, 70 years, is not necessarily a weakness for the electorate believes she: "My experience makes me immune to the vanities and ambitions, especially the wealth and glory."