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Leslie François Saint Roc Manigat (born August 16, 1930 in Port-au-Prince) was elected president of Haiti by a tightly controlled military held election in January 1988.
Leslie Manigat is also an educator. He was a professor at the prestigious l'Université de Paris-VIII Vincennes where he gave courses on World History. He also published articles on education in various Haitian Newspapers: Le Nouvelliste, La Phalange, Le Matin.
His political career began in the 50 years the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Supporting the application and the ideology of Francois Duvalier in 1957, he founded in 1958 at the request of the latter the School of International Studies and was its first director. However, in the early '60s, his relationship with the President of September 22, 1957 deteriorated to the point where he was prosecuted by the government. Accused of supporting the student strikes of the early 60s, he was imprisoned for two months in 1963 before going into exile and settled in particular the United States, France and Venezuela.
Known for his strong knowledge of history and expertise in matters relating to international relations, he was called to teach at several universities including the John Hopkins University in Baltimore Maryland (United States), the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris, the West Universities Indies in Trinidad, the Yale University (for a brief period) and the University of Caracas that bears the name of Universidad Central de Venezuela.
In exile, he sided with the opposition and became, in the 70's, a fierce activist, activism that led him to found in 1979 in Venezuela the Rally of National Progressive Democrats (NPDR). After the fall of Duvalier home February 6, 1986, as many fellow who campaigned in opposition from the outside, Leslie Francois Manigat said the way home with the idea of bringing its share in the process of democracy was thought to begin February 7, 1986. He marched under the banner of his party, presidential candidate in the presidential elections to be held November 29, 1987. When the CNG, based on violence and killing in a polling station, annulled the elections and had the audacity to dissolve once the CEP, Manigat refused to openly criticize the National Council of Government, and left even suggested that the CEP had its share of responsibility for the fiasco.
According to the Provisional Electoral Council (Conseil Electoral Provisoire, or CEP) he won the presidential election of January 17, 1988 with 50.29% of the votes, defeating ten other candidates. However, voter turnout was well under 10%. Few historians and vote monitors consider this election to have been democratic. He was inaugurated on February 7, 1988, and named Martial Célestin as his Prime Minister in March. He was overthrown by Gen. Henri Namphy on June 20, 1988 in the June 1988 Haitian coup d'état. He ran for president again in the February 2006 election but was defeated, receiving 12.40% of the vote and placing a distant second behind René Préval.
His wife Mirlande Manigat, was a candidate in the 2010 presidential election.
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