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Haitian protesters urge suspension of run-off presidential vote

Tuesday, 19 January 2016 11:00 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 19 January 2016 12:43 PM ]

Traders try to rescue their merchandise near a burning car during a protest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 18, 2016. ©AFP

Thousands of Haitians have held angry demonstrations ahead of the much awaited run-off presidential and legislative elections, calling for the upcoming vote to be suspended over alleged fraud.

Outraged Haitians blocked the streets in the capital Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in the country on Monday in a show of protest against President Michel Martelly and the upcoming elections.

Local media reported that the demonstrators torched electoral offices in northern towns and destroyed vehicles in the capital.

The protesters demanded that Martelly, who has held power since 2011, resign immediately, and that an interim government schedule new elections in early February.

The angry demonstrators blamed Martelly’s party for tampering with the October 25, 2015 ballots in favor of the government-backed candidate, Jovenel Moise.

Former head of Haiti’s state construction company, Jude Celestin, and Moise were supposed to face each other in a runoff in December, but the vote was postponed to January 24.

The delay came after an independent electoral commission concluded that fraud and irregularities marred the first-round of voting and that 60 percent of poll workers could not do their jobs properly.

Celestin’s opposition alliance and some other political factions have been calling for an independent review of last October’s elections for weeks. The opposition groups allege that a number of ballots have gone missing.

Haitian presidential candidate Jude Celestin speaks during an interview in the commune of Petion Ville, Port-au-Prince, on January 18, 2016. ©AFP

“I will not go to this farce. It will not be an election. It will be a selection because there is only one candidate,” he said, referring to Moise, who is supported by Martelly.

Celestin has not officially withdrawn his candidacy with the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), the body in charge of Haiti’s elections.

The October poll came almost five years after Martelly took office in the poorest country in the Americas, which got rid of the 30-year Duvalier dictatorship in 1986 but has not been able to find democratic stability since then.

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