Sunday, January 16, 2011

Haiti cancels the second round of presidential elections

The polls will not open today in Haiti. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) of the country has decided this morning, within hours of the opening of schools, to cancel the presidential runoff scheduled for Sunday. The decision was taken at a meeting in which to decide whether to exclude the government candidate, Jude Celestin, son of current President Rene Preval, as recommended in a report earlier this week the Organization of American States (OAS) consider that there was fraud in the first round.

The results presented by the CEP gave the victory to the teacher and former first lady Mirlande Manigat, with 31.37% of votes, the second, Celestin, with 22.48%, and the third singer Michel Martelly, with 21.84%, which was thus excluded from the second round. But the OAS report debunks this count, largely because of the fraud detected.

"It is recommended that the candidate who finished third (Martelly) go to second place, and that came in second place (Celestin) pass to take third place," says the document. For the OAS, the winners are Manigat and Martelly, and should be the ones who meet in a runoff. Is expected in the coming hours a visit to Haiti of the Secretary General of the OAS, the Chilean Jose Miguel Insulza, to discuss the recommendations in the report with local authorities.

Uncertainty Now in its day, the official results of CEP provoked protests from the followers of Martelly in Port au Prince and the department of Les Cayes in southern Haiti. In demonstrations at least four people died, dozens were injured and several public buildings were burned. It was then that the OAS decided to send a couple of teams of experts to Haiti, a check of the electoral process and other legal assistance, to review the results.

President Preval has agreed to postpone the announcement of final results of the first round, scheduled for December 20 until the end of his report OAS. He was also scheduled to be announced immediately after the date of the second round, which had been scheduled for Sunday 16 January. This weekend there have been further unrest after the official presentation of the report of the OAS.

Thirteen people were arrested Thursday for participating in protests in which shots were fired and placed barricades of burning tires. Delays and obscurity surrounding the entire electoral process increasingly uncertain paint the presidential succession. In accordance with the powers that the Constitution and laws of Haiti, Preval was handing over power to power on February 7, but it is likely that its mandate be extended until May.

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