The term of President Préval expires on February 7. However, because of an emergency law passed by Parliament last year, he could remain in office until May 14.
WASHINGTON, United States, Wednesday February 2, 2011 – A group of 19 Haitian and international policy and legal groups and human rights organizations has called on the United States to stop pressuring the Haiti government to accept a recommendation to drop the ruling party candidate from the upcoming presidential runoff.
The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) say that instead, the US government should “work with Haitian authorities to carry out the fair and inclusive elections that Haiti needs in order to move forward”.
“Though it may take a few more months to meet the necessary conditions for such elections to be held, the benefits for Haitian democracy and recovery far outweigh the potential costs,” said a statement issued yesterday and signed by groups including the Center for Constitutional Rights, TransAfrica Forum, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, and Latin American and Caribbean Community Center.
The statement follows US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Haiti over the weekend, during which she insisted that the government press ahead with the OAS recommendation to remove Jude Célestin, the candidate favoured by President René Préval, from the second round of elections, and put Michel Martelly in his place.
Former first lady Mirlande Manigat and Célestin were announced by Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) last month as the two, having received the most votes in the November 28 election, who would proceed to a runoff. But after violent protests across the country, an OAS expert mission that was called in to review the results found irregularities in the tally and said some votes had to be cast aside, resulting in Manigat with 31.6 percent of the vote, Martelly 22.2 percent and Célestin trailing with 21.9 percent.
But the statement issued by the NGOs said the OAS call for Célestin’s elimination constituted “an attempt to arbitrarily change the results of the elections and force the people of Haiti to accept an election and electoral process that do not express the people’s will.”
The group’s call for new elections echoes that of a Washington-based think tank, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which said last month that there were too many errors in the vote counting and tallying and the election results should therefore be scrapped and a new poll held.
The second round of the presidential elections have been scheduled for March 20 – even though who the competing candidates will be is still not yet clear. Results are expected on March 31.
The term of President Préval expires on February 7. However, because of an emergency law passed by Parliament last year, he could remain in office until May 14.