Haiti’s post-election crisis deepened on Sunday after opposition presidential candidates prolonged the political uncertainty by refusing to participate in a proposed recount.
President Rene Préval’s handpicked protégé Jude Celestin made it through to a second round run-off in flawed elections, officially pipping a popular opposition candidate by less than 7,000 votes.
Markets and banks opened for business for the first time since violent protests erupted on Tuesday evening when the results were announced.
The streets of the capital were bare on Friday as tyre smoke lingered in the air.
They were once again teeming with people on Saturday, many of them stockpiling goods, fearful the period of calm may not last long.
In a bid to counter the widespread allegations of fraud and stave off further protests, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced plans to add up all the tally sheets in the presence of the three main candidates.
Those plans were soon in disarray after losing opposition candidate Michel Martelly wrote an angry letter to the election commission, dismissing a process he said would be rigged again.
Martelly wrote: ‘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.’
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 favour of the ruling party candidate Jude Celestin.’
Martelly on Friday called the recount a trap and accused Préval of conspiring with the election commission and Celestin to rig the polls in secret back-room meetings.
Hundreds of Martelly supporters demonstrated in the 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, won the poll clearly ahead of 48-year-old Celestin, who just managed to go through to the January 16 run-off ahead of Martelly.
Manigat has also refused to support the vote review until the electoral commission announces clearer procedures.
Celestin is the only candidate currently backing it.
Haiti monitors, including the EU-funded National Observation Council (NOC), on Saturday called for a proper dialogue, warning that plans to recount the tally sheets ‘are not sufficient to lead to an eventual end to the crisis’.
Six monitoring groups said in a joint statement: ‘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.’
The Haitian 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 today and to last up to five days, but the process will have next to no credibility without the support of the Manigat and Martelly.
The United States has expressed concern at what it called 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.
Whoever wins the run-off faces the enormous task of rebuilding a traumatised nation of ten million that was the poorest in the Americas even before the earthquake and a deadly cholera outbreak that has claimed nearly 2,200 lives.
Last Friday, the UN Security Council called on all sides in Haiti to refrain from further violence in the dispute over preliminary results from last month’s first round of presidential and legislative elections.
In a press statement following a briefing from UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain LeRoy, the 15-member body ‘underscored their concern about allegations of fraud and expressed their strong commitment to supporting free and fair elections and called on all political forces to work through the electoral process to ensure that the will of the people is reflected in the outcome of the election.’
The UN press release said: ‘According to media reports, thousands of protesters have been rampaging through the streets of Port-au-Prince, the capital.
‘They set fire to the headquarters of the ruling government coalition, which they accused of rigging the results, after Tuesday’s announcement that former first lady Mirlande Manigat and outgoing President Rene Préval’s party candidate Jude Celestin qualified for the January presidential run-off by coming in first and second.
‘Popular musician Michel Martelly was less than one percentage point behind in third place, but thus excluded from the run-off, and his supporters set up burning barricades of timber, boulders and flaming tyres.
‘Haiti’s electoral council has said it will recount the ballots.’
Ambassador Susan Rice of the US, which holds the Council presidency for this month, said as she read out the statement: ‘The members of the Security Council called upon the Haitian authorities to ensure a calm and peaceful environment and urged MINUSTAH (UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti) to continue to extend its critical support in this regard.’
The UNSC statement also voiced ‘deep concern’ at the violence.
It added: ‘The electoral crisis caps a year of disasters for the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, which has already been ravaged this year by a devastating earthquake in January and a still raging cholera epidemic that erupted in October.
‘The quake killed over 200,000 people and displaced some 1.3 million others, most of them still living in crowded and unsanitary tent camps.
‘The epidemic has already killed some 2,120 people, with over 44,150 others hospitalised.
‘Ever since the November 28 elections Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been appealing for calm, warning that worsening security would hamper efforts to address both disasters.
‘MINUSTAH, with nearly 12,000 military and police personnel currently on the ground, has been in the country since mid-2004 after then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide went into exile amid violent unrest.’
