PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haitian electoral officials were still tallying the results of the country’s chaotic presidential elections late Monday night but the rumor mill was working overtime and candidates were already declaring themselves winners.

“The people have voted; we know the tendency,” Michel Martelly, a popular musician known as “Sweet Micky,” said at a morning press conference. “We will not stand with our mouths closed.”

“We have all of our tally sheets from all across the country in our possession, and we know we are ahead,” a confident Jude Célestin told The Miami Herald on Monday in his first sit-down interview with the foreign press since the campaign began.

EARLY RESULTS

Preliminary results for the Nov. 28 election are expected to be announced Tuesday but they may not provide much clarity and may result in a runoff election — or even possible violence.

Célestin, Haitian President René Préval’s hand-picked candidate, has spent the last few days making the rounds meeting with key players, including members of the international community. He said he is confident that his INITE (UNITY) coalition has won not only the presidency but picked up legislative seats.

A dozen opposition candidates, including Martelly, have already accused INITE of trying to steal the vote to make Célestin president.

For days now, workers at a tabulation center have been reviewing tally sheets, setting aside suspicious ones for elimination.

CHANGED STANCE

Initially both Martelly and Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady and presumed front runner, both called for cancellation of the vote due to election irregularities but then backed away from that position after learning that they might, in fact, emerge as the runoff candidates.

On Monday, their respective camps insisted they would be the runoff candidates — with Martelly going so far as saying he would not enter into a runoff with Célestin.

But there were worries that announcement of the preliminary results could touch off violence.

“We are in an electoral crisis that can convert into a political crisis that can begin on Tuesday when they give the results,” said former deputy Frantz Monde, who is supporting Manigat.

LEGAL RESEARCH

The international community has continued its call for calm, asking candidates to wait for the preliminary results and then to go through a claims and complaints process if they have problems with the results.

Members of the international community and Haitian scholars also have been doing legal research to come up with a political compromise — if one is needed. Among the areas they are researching is whether the constitution and electoral law would allow a three-person runoff if the vote is very close between candidates.

NEW ELECTIONS?

Meanwhile, Canada has been discusing the possibility of holding new elections under a transitional government.

Haiti’s business community also served notice Monday that it would not endorse an electoral process that didn’t reflect the will of Haitians or that was flawed or fraudulent.

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