Political parties in Haiti were on Friday calling on the electoral officials to investigate allegations of voter fraud in last Sunday’s presidential elections before any official announcement is made of the winners. Jude Celestin, who is one of the presidential candidates, has written to the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) alleging that members of his LAPEH party at the Voting Tabulation Center (CTV) “saw and noted that many minutes transmitted to the CTV were accepted and validated, whereas the correlative listings of ‘émargement’ do not have signatures or fingerprints of the voters, only able to guarantee the authenticity of the vote with reference to article 158.1 of the electoral decree”. Celestin is warning that “if, in the next hours and before any proclamation of partial results, such a flagrant violation is not corrected, it risks to irreparably damage the integrity and reliability of the entire process”. He is also reminding of the problems that confronted the elections of 2010 and 2015, noting “elections must not be subjected to any manipulation or any gross form of violation of the law in general and the electoral decree in particular.
“Immediate corrections are required. In particular, the minutes must be submitted to the Voting Tabulation Center’s (CTV) compliance control department, which is the only one authorized to review and validate them,” he wrote.
Earlier this week, Interim President Jocelerme Privert called on Haitians to a accept the outcome of Sunday’s vote for a new head of state, saying it is important for the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country to emerge from the political instability over the years.
At least six million Haitians were eligible to vote for one of 27 presidential candidates, as well as for members of both houses of parliament in elections that had been repeatedly delayed for various reasons.
Full Article: Political parties call for investigation as Haitians await election results | The NY Carib News.
