Severity of Problems in Vote is Disputed - Parti au pouvoir admet possible défaite

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and DAMIEN CAVE - Published: November 29, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — With Haiti on edge after widespread reports of voting irregularities in its presidential election Sunday, the chief of a team of international election observers acknowledged the problems on Monday, but said they did not appear serious enough to invalidate the election.

Colin Granderson, chief of a team of more than 100 observers from theOrganization of American States and the Caribbean Community, told journalists the observers saw what they had reported: voters confused over where to cast ballots and turned away from polling places, names missing from registration lists, and poll workers offering misleading or incorrect information.

Mr. Granderson’s remarks were a sign that some in the international community, which is eager for new leadership and heavily invested in helping the devastated country hold its first elections since the January earthquake and the outbreak of cholera last month, were lining up behind the government’s handling of the balloting.

“Serious as some of the issues were, it does not necessarily invalidate the process,” he said.

Mr. Granderson also rebuked 12 of the 18 candidates for their denouncement Sunday of the election because of what they said was “massive fraud” on the part of President René Préval’s governing party. The candidates made their accusations hours before polls closed and without submitting evidence.

That call, Mr. Granderson said, was “hasty and regrettable.”

The United States Embassy, which put up $14 million to carry out the election, issued a more cautious statement, saying that Mr. Granderson’s assessment was “part of a process and we are currently consulting with our partners in the international community to better understand the details of what the observers saw nationwide.”

Haiti’s national election council has called the voting problems minimal and is proceeding with tabulating ballots, with preliminary results expected Dec. 7. But it seemed clear that popular perception that the election was tainted was growing in a country with a long, sometimes violent history of political turmoil. One radio skit said the entire episode was “like a Hollywood movie, and the title is ‘Ocean’s Eleven.’ ”

The streets of the capital were quiet Monday but for sporadic reports of protests and roadblocks.

But two popular musicians, one on the ballot (Michel Martelly) and another who wished he had been (Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-American singer) raised the specter of civil unrest if their aims, which they said reflected the electorate’s, were not met. Mr. Jean, while insisting he was in Haiti only to vote as a citizen and not to inject himself in politics, called a news conference at which he predicted civil unrest unless there were an independent, international tabulation of the results and an investigation of what went wrong.

“I know that in 24 hours, if a decision is not made and we procrastinate, the country will rise to a level of violence that we have never seen before,” said Mr. Jean, who had been denied a place on the ballot because he did not meet residency requirements.

Mr. Jean, a friend of Mr. Martelly’s, said he would disclose his vote by posting a picture of his ballot on Twitter after the February inauguration.

At the national tabulation center in the capital, many votes from the countryside had yet to arrive by Monday afternoon.

But a spot check of some results at voting centers, while too small to be conclusive for the nation as a whole, suggested Mr. Martelly had a strong showing in some quarters over the candidate of the governing Unity Party, Jude Célestin, Mr. Préval’s choice.

At one voting bureau — one of the many precincts that make up a full polling center — Mr. Martelly beat Mr. Célestin 40 to 1, with Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady seeking to become Haiti’s first elected female president, coming in second with 13 votes.

At another bureau in the same voting center, Mr. Martelly won 53 votes, while Mr. Célestin won only 2. Each of the other candidates had fewer than 10 votes.

A fuller count could not be determined at many voting centers because vandals had torn down tallies, or scratched out the results, particularly for Mr. Martelly and Ms. Manigat.

The posted tallies clearly pointed to a low turnout, typically 10 to 20 percent. “The people are very, very discouraged about elections,” said Gerald Salomon, a former mayor of Port-au-Prince. “When you see that Jude Célestin had three votes or zero votes, it’s amazing,” Mr. Salomon said. “He spent so much money, and he had power behind him, and he still couldn’t do anything. That means the people are rejecting Préval.” If Mr. Martelly wins, or heads into a Jan. 16 runoff as the leader, it would show Haitians’ strong disgust with the status quo, he said. “All the people who have three or four diplomas don’t do anything for the country,” Mr. Salomon said, “so they’re choosing someone who they think can do something different.”

Mr. Martelly, who earlier urged Mr. Préval and Mr. Célestin to leave the country, did not seem prepared to entertain the notion that he may have won.

When asked, in an interview in English with a small group of reporters, if he would accept the results were he declared the winner, he said, “It’s not that I want the presidency that bad,” but added he would consult with advisers before deciding.

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En Haïti, le parti au pouvoir admet une possible défaite aux élections

Publié le 30/11/2010 à 19:39 - Modifié le 30/11/2010 à 20:07 Le Point.fr

Alors qu'Haïti attend les résultats du premier tour de la présidentielle et des législatives, qui ont eu lieu dimanche, le parti du président haïtien René Préval a reconnu mardi 30 novembre qu'il pourrait avoir perdu l'élection. Le conseil électoral provisoire (CEP) chargé de l'organisation des élections avait reçu mardi à la mi-journée 45 % des procès-verbaux des bureaux de votes.

"Nous sommes des démocrates convaincus, Inité est prêt à accepter l'alternance démocratique", a déclaré devant la presse le sénateur Joseph Lambert, coordonnateur du parti présidentiel Inité ("unité" en créole). "Si on rate les élections au niveau présidentiel, on passe à l'opposition ou bien on peut cohabiter avec le groupe qui aurait gagné les élections", a-t-il ajouté.

Le scrutin de dimanche a donné lieu à des incidents qui ont fait deux morts et dix blessés dans tout le pays. Une majorité des 18 candidats à la présidentielle ont exigé l'annulation du scrutin dimanche soir, se disant victimes de fraudes au profit du candidat d'Inité, Jude Célestin

"Coup d'État électoral"

Deux des favoris des sondages, Mirlande Manigat et le chanteur Michel Martelly, qui avaient dans un premier temps exigé également l'annulation du scrutin, ont finalement indiqué lundi qu'ils se ralliaient au processus électoral, donnant l'impression de croire à leur chance de se retrouver au second tour, prévu le 16 janvier. Alors que les résultats des différents départements arrivaient à Port-au-Prince, le conseil électoral haïtien a promis de publier les résultats des scrutins d'ici le 5 décembre. Il se préparait entre-temps à dresser un bilan des incidents enregistrés dans le pays, qui ont conduit à l'annulation du vote dans 56 des 1.500 centres de vote.

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