AFP - Haiti's post-election crisis has deepened as monitor groups joined the main opposition candidates in dismissing a planned recount intended to stave off more deadly unrest.
Conservative US politician Sarah Palin, undeterred by days of politically-charged rioting that killed at least five people, began a weekend visit with American evangelical group Samaritan's Purse.
The potential 2012 presidential candidate comforted child cholera victims at a clinic and toured a camp where the group provides shelter for victims of the January quake, which killed 250,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless.
"I've really enjoyed meeting this community," Palin said. "They are so full of joy. We are so fortunate in America and we are responsible for helping those less fortunate. Samaritan's Purse is still here doing the tough work."
Her arrival coincided with the first normalcy in Haiti since President Rene Preval's handpicked protege made it through to a second round run-off in flawed elections, pipping a popular opposition candidate by less than 7,000 votes.
Markets and banks opened for business for the first time since the violence erupted after Tuesday's announcement of presidential election results that opposition candidates say were rigged by Preval and the ruling Unity party.
The streets of the capital, eerily bare on Friday as putrid tire smoke lingered in the air, were once again teeming with people Saturday, many of them stocking up on supermarket goods, fearful the period of calm may not last long.
The unrest prompted the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to announce plans to add up all the tally sheets in the presence of the three main candidates in a bid to counter the widespread allegations of fraud.
But those plans are now in disarray as the losing opposition candidate Michel Martelly is refusing to participate in a process he is convinced will be engineered by the ruling party, just like, he alleges, the November 28 polls.
"The solution of this public farce which has already caused some regrettable losses in human lives is certainly not a simple recount of the tally sheets in the possession of the CEP," Martelly, 49, wrote in a letter to the commission.
The singer-turned-politician called for "the cancellation of tally sheets from polling stations that were sacked, vandalised, the object of massive and scandalous fraud in favor of the ruling party candidate Jude Celestin."
In an interview with AFP on Friday, Martelly called the recount a "trap" and accused Preval of conspiring with the election commission, Unity, and Celestin to rig the polls in secret back-room meetings.
Hundreds of the his supporters demonstrated peacefully in the smart Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville on Saturday night, chanting "Martelly or death! Martelly is president!" until being dispersed by police gunfire.
According to official results, Mirlande Manigat, a 70-year-old academic and former first lady, clearly led the poll, while Celestin, 48, squeaked through to the January 16 run-off ahead of Martelly.
Manigat has also refused to support the vote review until the electoral commission announces clear procedures about how the process will be authenticated.
Haiti monitors, including the European Union-funded National Observation Council, called instead for a proper dialogue, saying plans to recount the tally sheets "are not sufficient to lead to an eventual end to the crisis."
"A consultation that can achieve a satisfactory consensus is essential to unblock the impasse and end up with results accepted by all that can be successfully implemented," six monitoring groups said in a joint statement.
The electoral commission on Saturday appealed for calm while it awaits the findings of a seven-member committee set up to investigate the fraud-tainted polls, the first since January's earthquake.
The recount was widely expected to begin on Monday and to last up to five days, but it was hard to imagine how the process would have any credibility without the support of the candidates.
The United States has expressed concern at the "inconsistent" election results, while a top senator has called for US aid to be frozen and travel visas to be denied to top Haitian officials to force a fair outcome.
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