Haiti's electoral authorities have granted the Organization of American States “unlimited access” to information concerning November’s disputed presidential election in the hope of validating contested results from the first round of the poll.
By News Wires (text)
AFP - Haiti has granted Organization of American States experts full access to verify the results of the country's disputed presidential election, a top OAS official told AFP on Tuesday.
Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) promised a recount of the November 28 election results after official results set off charges of fraud and rioting by angry supporters of a losing candidate.
President Rene Preval, accused of rigging the election in favor of his hand-picked candidate, has delayed the recount until after an OAS mission was in place to verify the results.
The Haitian government agreed on the terms of the mission's review late Monday, OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin told AFP.
"Technical experts will have unlimited access to information and facilities, (and) will be able to look into results sheets and the procedures followed in determining the outcome," Ramdin said.
A first OAS team of six experts is scheduled to fly to Haiti on Wednesday, Ramdin said.
"I'm not sure how long it will take," he said. "We want to be thorough, we want to make sure a good verification is done and at the same time we are also very aware of time limits."
The experts will write up a report that will be sent to the Haitian government and then to the OAS permanent council, he said.
The disputed results published earlier this month had former first lady Mirlande Manigat in the lead with 31 percent of the vote, followed by ruling party candidate Jude Celestin with 22 percent.
The two frontrunners were supposed to advance to a run-off scheduled for January 16, but the count was rejected by popular singer Michel Martelly, who trailed Celestin by less than 7,000 votes.
Martelly's supporters and others took to the streets after the results were announced, torching cars and government buildings and clashing with rival supporters and UN peacekeepers in violence that left at least five people dead.
Thousands of people were unable to vote in the chaotic first round, either because they were not on the register or they lacked identification papers lost in the January earthquake.
Haiti has been immersed in crisis since the earthquake, which killed 250,000 people and leveled the capital, leaving more than 1.3 million people homeless.
A cholera epidemic that broke out in October has added another layer of misery and uncertainty over the country's future.
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