Pierre Thibault, a front man for the electoral commission, said on Wednesday that Martelly won the presidency with 67.6 per cent of the vote, defeating rival candidate Mirlande Manigat.
The announcement ends a long, drawn-out election that began on November 28 and was marred by fraud and other irregularities, several days of rioting and numerous delays.
Martelly, who had no previous political experience before he became a presidential candidate, is scheduled to be inaugurated on May 14.
On the same day that Haitian officials announced the final results, Martelly met US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Tallyrand...
in Washington. He said he spoke with Clinton about his three priorities: education, finding homes for people living in tents since an earthquake in January last year devastated much of the country, and restarting Haiti's agricultural sector.
At a news conference, Martelly admitted he had "huge challenges'' ahead of him. He called reconstruction efforts "despairingly slow." He also stressed the need to tackle the cholera epidemic that has claimed more than 4,700 lives since October. He warned that the coming hurricane season could spread the disease countrywide.