Originally Published:Sunday, January 16th 2011, 6:50 PM
Updated: Monday, January 17th 2011, 2:59 AM

Coruzzi/Getty; Espinosa/AP Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier said he wanted to see the situation in Haiti.

Haiti's election mess turned explosive on Sunday when ex-dictator Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier unexpectedly arrived in Port-au-Prince after 25 years in exile.

Photos showed Duvalier, 59, in blue suit and tie, walking off an Air France plane with his companion, Veronique Roy, to the welcome of supporters.

His first visit to Haiti since he was deposed by a popular uprising in 1986 received a mixed reaction from Haitians in both the island nation and in New York.

"Everyone wants to know what it means. Everyone is nervous. We don't know what is going on," said Ricot Dupuy, who runs Radio Soleil D'Haiti in Brooklyn.

At Rival Brooklyn Haitian station Radyo Panou, deejay Jean Lynch, 54, said Duvalier's return seemed like a good thing.

"In Haiti we have too many problems. I'm so happy that he is back. Everyone is so happy," Lynch said.

Duvalier's declined to state his intentions, except to say he was there "to help" and to "participate in the rebirth of Haiti."

"I was waiting for this moment for a long time. When I first set foot on the ground, I felt great joy," Duvalier told the Reuters news agency.

"I wanted to show them my solidarity, to tell them that I am here," he said of the suffering people of Haiti, a poor country he is accused of siphoning $100 million from.

Port-au-Prince erupted in a frenzy of rumors and ringing phones as news of Duvalier's return came in the middle of a major political crisis in Haiti.

President Rene Preval, who is supposed to leave office in three weeks, is resisting international pressure to remove his handpicked candidate from a runoff election. A first round of balloting on Nov. 28 was widely considered rigged.

Garaudy Laguerre, a presidential candidate who grew up under Duvalier, was among those expressing shock and wariness.

"He cannot be arriving for a good reason," Laguerre said. "This can only bring instability to Haiti. This is bringing fuel to the fire in terms of the political crisis."

Laguerre said Haiti, which is still reeling from the earthquake a year ago, is too fragile to handle a new blow. "This is not what Haiti needs right now in the middle of fraudulent elections and an electoral crisis," he said.

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said he had no hint that Duvalier was set to return or was involved in any local political activities.

"He is a Haitian and, as such, is free to return home," Bellerive said last night.

Garry Pierre-Pierre, editor of the New York-based Haitian Times newspaper, said some Haitians have a misplaced nostalgia for the days of dictatorship.

"A part of the country felt those were the good old days because things got so much worse afterwards," he said. "After the earthquake and the elections, people are looking for any alternative."

Duvalier, who ruled Haiti after the 1971 death of his authoritarian father, Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier, had been living in exile in France.

With Dave Goldiner, Irving DeJohn and News Wire Services