PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – International observers yesterday cautiously endorsed Haiti’s troubled elections, saying they could be considered valid despite “irregularities” that generated popular protests and charges of fraud.
The problems detected included some voter manipulation, acts of violence and intimidation, a “toxic atmosphere” created by fraud allegations and cases of voters not being able to find where to cast their ballots, the joint observer mission from the Organization of American States/Caribbean Community said.
“The joint mission does not believe that these irregularities, serious as some were, necessarily invalidated the process,” Ambassador Colin Granderson, head of the OAS/Caricom mission, told a news conference in Port-au-Prince.
The assessment of his 118-member team, which observed Sunday’s elections across Haiti, gave some relief to an international community anxious to see the polls produce a stable, legitimate government for the earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation. Foreign donors see this as crucial for administering billions of dollars of funds pledged to help the Western Hemisphere’s poorest state recover from a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people. An earlier declaration by Haiti’s electoral authorities that the polls were largely a success flew in the face of widespread popular anger over voting problems and denunciation of “massive fraud” by 12 of the 18 presidential contenders.
But musician Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, one of the election frontrunners who had called with the others on Sunday for the polls to be annulled, backed away from this position on Monday, saying he believed the votes should be counted.
Another frontrunner, opposition matriarch Mirlande Manigat, also softened her call for annulment, saying she would participate in a run-off if the vote count showed her among the two candidates with the most votes.
The varied field of presidential candidates raised the likelihood of a deciding second round on Jan. 16.
Granderson of the OAS/Caricom observer mission criticized the public fraud denunciation as “hasty and regrettable”.
Martelly, whose supporters had been among the most active in protesting the elections on Sunday, explained his change of position by saying his candidacy had been leading in polling stations where there had not been fraud.
“I want the electoral council, President (Rene) Preval and the international community to respect the voice of the population,” he told reporters in Port-au-Prince.
Martelly, whose call for the votes to be counted was backed by fellow musician and hip-hop star Wyclef Jean, appealed for his supporters to remain calm.
Before Martelly and Manigat softened their positions, the candidates’ joint fraud denunciation had left Jude Celestin, the candidate of outgoing president Preval’s Inite (Unity) coalition, virtually alone among the presidential contenders in upholding the legitimacy of the polls.
Martelly, Celestin and Manigat had been leading the field of the 18 presidential candidates, according to opinion polls.
In the heart of the sprawling capital, expectation, uncertainly and fears of unrest were running high. The city’s rubble-strewn streets are now also littered with electoral posters and, in some areas, unused ballot papers.
