Haiti government to review election returns News
Haiti government to review election returns

[JURIST] Government officials in Haiti [JURIST news archive] have announced plans to form a commission to review the contested results of that country's February 7 election [JURIST report; BBC backgrounder]. The commission will be composed of members of the president's office, representatives from the Provisional Election Council (CEP) [official website], and members of the political party of leading presidential candidate Rene Preval [Wikipedia profile]. Final results will not be released until after the commission has completed its review.

After the February 7 election, allegations of possible voter fraud arose after two members of the nine-member CEP claimed that election results were manipulated [JURIST report] after discovering discrepancies in election results posted to the CEP website. Preval has also alleged the election was marred by fraud [JURIST report], and said that he would challenge the results if forced into a runoff election. The latest vote tally [PDF] published by the CEP gives Preval 48.76 percent of the vote; Preval needs more than 50 percent of votes to avoid a runoff election. The contested election has led to protests throughout the country, during which UN peacekeepers fired on a group of demonstrators on Monday [JURIST report], killing at least one person. AP has more.

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