Stone-throwing supporters of eliminated election candidates are violently protesting in Haiti after preliminary results of the Nov. 28 election were announced on Wednesday.
Angry protesters barricaded the streets of the capital and started fires throughout the country after by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) declared that Jude Celestin and former first lady Mirlande Manigat would run against each other in a runoff vote for the presidency. Celestin is the handpicked successor to outgoing President Rene Preval.
According to election results reported by the National Observation Council, a local election monitoring group financed by the European Union, Celestin should have been eliminated.
“We remain concerned by the Provisional Electoral Council’s announcement of preliminary results that are inconsistent with the published results of the National Election Observation Council, or CNO, which had more than 5,500 observers. It observed the count in 1,600 voting centers nationwide,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley at a press briefing on Dec. 8.
Demonstrators in an Internally Displaced Persons camp, harboring thousands of victims of the earthquake, toppled portable toilets spreading excrements and potentially increasing the risk of cholera infection.
The Nov. 28 elections were punctuated by a wide range of allegations of fraud confirmed by international observers.
“"The United States, together with Haiti’s international partners, stand ready to support efforts to thoroughly review irregularities so that the final electoral results are consistent with the will of the Haitian people as expressed through their votes,” said Crowley in the same briefing.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement called for a peaceful resolution to the current situation to create conditions that will give Haiti the best chance to recover from last January’s earthquake and the current cholera epidemic.
Angry protesters barricaded the streets of the capital and started fires throughout the country after by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) declared that Jude Celestin and former first lady Mirlande Manigat would run against each other in a runoff vote for the presidency. Celestin is the handpicked successor to outgoing President Rene Preval.
According to election results reported by the National Observation Council, a local election monitoring group financed by the European Union, Celestin should have been eliminated.
“We remain concerned by the Provisional Electoral Council’s announcement of preliminary results that are inconsistent with the published results of the National Election Observation Council, or CNO, which had more than 5,500 observers. It observed the count in 1,600 voting centers nationwide,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley at a press briefing on Dec. 8.
Demonstrators in an Internally Displaced Persons camp, harboring thousands of victims of the earthquake, toppled portable toilets spreading excrements and potentially increasing the risk of cholera infection.
The Nov. 28 elections were punctuated by a wide range of allegations of fraud confirmed by international observers.
“"The United States, together with Haiti’s international partners, stand ready to support efforts to thoroughly review irregularities so that the final electoral results are consistent with the will of the Haitian people as expressed through their votes,” said Crowley in the same briefing.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement called for a peaceful resolution to the current situation to create conditions that will give Haiti the best chance to recover from last January’s earthquake and the current cholera epidemic.
