PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haiti yesterday heeded foreign pressure and amended the results of its November first-round election, setting up a presidential runoff that excludes a government-backed candidate hit by fraud allegations.
The country’s Provisional Electoral Council, or CEP, said former first lady Mirlande Manigat and musician Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly were the two top finishers in the chaotic Nov. 28 vote, ahead of government technocrat Jude Celestin.
The two candidates will contest a runoff set for March 20 to replace outgoing President Rene Preval.
The definitive CEP results, which reversed a preliminary count that had placed Celestin second and in the runoff, averted a showdown between Haiti’s government and electoral officials and the Organization of American States and Western donors including the United States.
They were in line with a revision carried out by OAS experts, who, addressing allegations of widespread fraud and irregularities in the first-round vote tallies, recommended Martelly go through to the runoff instead of Celestin,
Opposition matriarch Manigat, 70, the wife of Leslie Manigat, who was president for a few months in 1988, did not gain enough votes to win outright in the first round. No percentages, just the positions, were announced on Thursday.
After Martelly supporters rioted in December against the initial results, the United Nations, United States and other Western donor governments pressured Haiti’s leaders and electoral authorities to adopt the OAS recommendation.
There had been fears the December unrest could escalate and derail the elections, threatening the transfer of power by Preval and putting at risk billions of dollars of aid pledged to help the poor Caribbean nation recover from a devastating 2010 earthquake.
“Today is not a gift, we fought for it,” Martelly told a news conference where he welcomed the CEP’s final results. “Finally, the electoral council heard the voice of the population. The results matched the will of the Haitian people who voted for Manigat and Martelly,” he said. But Martelly, 49, added the CEP was “not credible” and that his campaign would soon lay out “what exact steps need to be taken” to fix that before the runoff.
Manigat congratulated Martelly and said she hoped the runoff campaign “will be held in an atmosphere of civility, that the focus will be put on the issues that matter to the Haitian people.”
The national coordinator for Celestin’s Inite party, Joseph Lambert, said the party accepted Thursday’s results and would turn its attention toward winning a majority in Parliament.
The U.S. Embassy said it was ready to assist Haiti in promoting “a free and fair electoral process” and reducing the fraud and irregularities that plagued the first round.