Port-au-Prince, Haiti ? Haiti’s president-elect said Wednesday that the nations’ constitution permits the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but Rene Preval declined to say whether he would welcome home his exiled former mentor.

Preval, a 63-year-old agronomist, said Aristide could not be barred from returning to the volatile Caribbean nation two years after he was toppled in a bloody revolt.

“My position is simple on President Aristide and any other citizen who wants to come to Haiti,” Preval said in his first news conference since he was declared the winner of the Feb. 7 election. “Article 41 of the Haitian Constitution says that no Haitian needs a visa to enter or leave the country.”

Aristide said Wednesday he wants to return from exile in South Africa, but that the timing of his arrival in Haiti would be up to “my president” and other leaders.