The results of Haiti’s contested first-round presidential elections were such a disaster that the process should recommence at zero, the head of a five-member panel charged with reviewing the vote told the nation Monday. Francois Benoit made the recommendation during a ceremony at the National Palace in which he handed over a 105-page report, the results of a month-long audit by the Independent Commission of Evaluation and Verification, to interim President Jocelerme Privert. Privert, in turn, gave the report to the revamped Provisional Electoral Council, which will ultimately decide whether to accept the recommendation. It had planned to announce a new elections calendar on Tuesday. The commission audited 25 percent of the results, or 3,325 tally sheets from 13,000 polling stations across the country. “The conclusion we have reached is that the evil started not only within the polling stations, but a little higher in the distribution of [accreditation cards]” Benoit said, referring to the tens of thousands of cards that were distributed to poll workers and electoral observers and went for as little as $3 on election day. The cards allowed individuals known as mandataires to vote multiple times and at any polling station. The card, he said, “frantically opened the way for … trading.”
“We noticed that there were some liberties taken with the law with the electoral process with an array of zombie votes,” he added. “The number of untraceable votes exceeded the legitimate votes acquired by politicians.”
The report itself noted that in many instances, supporting documents like the partial voting list was missing, making it impossible to determine the validity of the vote and ultimately decide who among the 54 presidential candidates should be in the runoff. There were also deceased voters on the voting list, and voting cards were also trafficked and sold to the highest bidder.
“In the commission’s opinion, the elections were a complete disaster and are simply not salvageable,” said Robert Fatton, a Haiti political observer and political science professor at the University of Virginia. “They violated the basic democratic idea of one-person-one-vote; thus, a re-run is in order.”
Full Article: Haiti panel calls for re-run of presidential elections | Miami Herald.
