URGENT – HAITI-POLITICS
by STAFF WRITER
Outgoing Haiti President Michel Martelly
Haiti – elections demonstrators
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Jan 22, CMC – The second round of presidential elections scheduled for Sunday has been cancelled as electoral officials said they could not guarantee their safety as well as the voters.
Jude Célestin, the main opposition candidate in Sunday’s election said the cancellation is ‘a victory for all of the democratic sector”.
This isn’t just about me. It’s also about all the people who supported me and who fought for us to arrive here,” he told the Miami Herald.
Roudy Stanley Penn, a spokesman for the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) said that Council had agreed to postpone the presidential and legislative runoffs that had been set for Sunday.
The electoral officials later told a news conference that safety could not be guaranteed for voters or poll workers as opposition supporters continued with their street protest to force the postponement of the polls that they claimed were being rigged in favour of the government backed candidate Jovenel Moïse, who despite the announcement continued with his campaign on Friday.
The announcement by the electoral officials come less than 24 hours after President Michel Martelly dismissed opposition demands that he postpone the second round of presidential elections and vowed that polling will take place “amid order and discipline”.
In a nationwide radio and television broadcast on Thursday night, Martelly, who is barred by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive term in office, said “the election must be held” and reminded citizens that when he took up office in 2011 he had vowed to leave on schedule in February 2016.
Martelly denounced what he termed “vast plot to try to destabilize us” and accused the opposition of engaging in a strategy to prevent the legitimate handover of power to a new head of state on February 7.
“They want to take power their way, because they can’t take it through the ballot,” he said in the broadcast.
The opposition parties have accused Martelly and the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) of seeking to rig the polls in favour of Moise was received 32.76 per cent of the vote in the first round of balloting last October.
Earlier this week, the Organization of American States (OAS) expressed “concern on the current political impasse ahead of Sunday’s second round of elections”.
On Friday, six foreign ambassadors along with the OAS representative and the head of the U.N. peacekeeping stabilization mission said that while they still want to see the conclusion of the electoral process, they support efforts “aimed at finding a way forward that ensures the democratic renewal of state institutions.”
Michaëlle Jean, the Secretary General of the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie is calling on all Haitians to “to promote dialogue during this crucial phase of the electoral process.
“A solution must be found in the best interests of the Haitian people,” said the Haitian born Jean, a former Governor General of Canada.
“I urge all actors involved in the electoral process to act responsibly and make every effort to meet the legitimate expectations of the Haitian people who aspire to peace, to the necessary stability, to the democracy and the Rule of Law. The future, the succession and development of the country depend of that.”
She said her organisation was prepared to contribute, alongside international partners, to the search of a solution to the electoral crisis now raging in Haiti.
There have been efforts over the past few days involving members of the private sector and Roman Catholic Cardinal Chibly Langlois to find a solution to the electoral crisis, which was triggered by allegations of fraud in the October 25 presidential runoff and Célestin declaring his non-participation.
