PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) says the campaign for the October 25 legislative and presidential election will begin on Wednesday.
In a statement to the political parties, political groups, candidates and the general public, the CEP said that the campaign will last for one month.
“The Council invites candidates to comply scrupulously with the provisions of Article 115.1 of the said Decree, in meetings of public nature,” the CEP said.
At least 54 candidates have been approved by the CEP to contest the presidential elections to choose a successor to President Michel Martelly, who is barred from seeking a third consecutive term under the constitution.
The first round of legislative elections on August 9 was marred by incidents of violence with the CEP reporting that men armed with rocks and bottles had attacked polling stations in the capital and about 50 of 1,500 voting centres around the country were “affected” by a mixture of violence and bureaucratic problems.
The CEP later banned a number of candidate and political parties from participating in the second round of the elections and many candidates are disputing the preliminary results with the CEP promising that the final results would be posted by month end.
More than 5.8 million Haitians are eligible to vote in the legislative election, the first since President Martelly came to power in May 2011
Meanwhile, the CEP said that it had established a list of national electoral observation organizations, authorized to monitor the elections.
The Organization of American States (OAS) has already indicated that it would be sending an observer team to monitor the polls.
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