The JBA tradition we refer to, of course, is the rioting, road-blocking and tire-burning around the capital city by his loyalists. They were reacting to the news on Monday that the candidate they were backing in the Feb. 7 presidential election, René Preval, might not win in the first round.

Those actions had their intended result. After days of unrest, Mr. Preval was declared the winner yesterday. The official line is that when the final tally was done, his lead spiked to 51.1% of the vote -- enough for a first-round win -- from 48.7% the day before. A more plausible explanation is that the international community -- most notably Brazil -- prevailed in its arm twisting of the opposition to accept defeat so as to end the violence.

What a pity. Yielding to violence has a dismal track record in history and it's hard to see how this experiment with appeasement will turn out any differently. Nevertheless, Haiti has a new president now and we should all hope for the best. It won't take long for us to find out whether Mr. Preval -- who served a failed presidential term 1995-2000 -- has learned anything from watching Aristide and his Lavalas Party destroy the nation's fumbling efforts to become a true democracy.

Although many parliamentary seats will be decided in a second round, it looks likely that President Preval may have to deal with a significant opposition. This is a new concept in Haiti, tried only once under the Aristide presidency, which responded to it by nourishing a political culture of intolerance and a subculture of brutality and ruthlessness among young, disenfranchised elements of the population.

Describing this reality in 1991, New York Times writer Howard French quoted Jean-Claude Bajeux, "a human-rights advocate whose organization had [my emphasis] been a supporter" of Aristide: "For Lavalas, the parliament became a negation of the power the people gave Aristide," Mr. Bajeux said. "They reasoned that Aristide should have had all the power because he was the people."

In the same piece, Mr. French described how Lavalas responded when the legislature disagreed with Aristide: "A crowd of at least 2,000 Aristide supporters surrounded the National Assembly on Aug. 13, roughing up two deputies and threatening to burn others alive . . ."

In its latest test of tolerating dissent, the country has done no better, no thanks to the rudderless Organization of American States, one of the election organizers. Consider the facts. With only a small portion of ballots counted, Mr. Preval was reported to have won some 60% of the vote. But the early tally was concentrated in the Western department, which includes the heavily pro-Aristide capital's two million inhabitants. Once votes were counted in the rest of Haiti -- particularly outside big cities where the Aristide tyranny is not so fondly remembered -- the Preval lead diminished.

The numbers also reflect the fact that some 60% to 65% of eligible Haitians voted this time around. In the last presidential election, in 2000, when Aristide claimed a landslide victory, the climate of fear his gangs had created was so intense that turnout was just 15%. It is also worth noting that, according to an OAS official, neither the Lavalas Party nor Mr. Preval's Lespwa (Hope) Party seem to have done particularly well in the parliamentary elections. If this is true, it means that voters are expressing an interest in exploring alternatives to the politics of Mr. Preval and the Aristide legacy.

Yet violence erupted when the vote count showed that Mr. Preval's lead had started falling. Charges of fraud, even from Mr. Preval himself, began to circulate. Mr. Preval's most proactive supporters, who not coincidentally are known to refer to him as Aristide's "twin," responded quickly to his complaint of cheating. Pro-Aristide gangs stormed the Montana Hotel looking for the electoral council.

By Wednesday Preval backers were claiming that valid ballots were found in a trash heap outside the capital. Critics said that, despite rain, the paper was clean and unspoiled. But never mind the plausibility of the charge. It had legs and incited further protests. Archbishop Desmond Tutu had to be airlifted by helicopter from the Dominican embassy because air travel had been cut off.

It may be true that the election process, which was largely the responsibility of the OAS and the United Nations, was less than perfect. But, OAS and U.N. fallibility aside, it is also quite possible that the election on balance reflected the Haitian political landscape. Aristide supporters have tried hard to advance the myth that Haiti is a battleground pitting a minority of light-skinned elites against a majority of Aristide-loving blacks. An objective assessment, though, shows that many Haitians are bitterly disappointed with the authoritarian and corrupt practices of Aristide and are looking for alternatives. This reality has been observed by many Haitian intellectuals who once backed Aristide, including the prize-winning film maker Raoul Peck.

In her Jan. 25 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before confirmation as the new U.S. ambassador to Haiti, Janet Ann Sanderson made note of the hope surrounding the elections. "We are seeing broad participation by candidates from all sectors of Haiti's society in what may well be the most diverse expression of Haiti political viewpoints ever held in the country." Then she added a prescient warning: "This election must signal the end of winner-take-all politics in Haiti. They have no place in the Haiti of the future."

Some observers say that Mr. Preval wishes to distance himself from Aristide and to rule the nation in a more democratic spirit. If so, Haitian politicians across the political spectrum are going to have to assist institutional development by learning to practice civil discourse, power-sharing and compromise.

But the successes of armed gangs this week are likely to encourage continued violence unless the president signals a change of course. And he has a chance to do just that. During the protests, the war lords said that the only one they would turn over their weapons to is President Preval. They now have a President Preval. We'll see.