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#4134: Haiti election officials say results not final (fwd)
From:nozier@tradewind.net
WIRE:06/06/2000 20:12:00 ET
Haiti election officials say results not
final
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, June 6 (Reuters) - Haiti's election supervisors
cautioned in a letter to international observers on Tuesday that
disputed Senate election results were only partial and preliminary, but
said they were nonetheless honest. "None of the senators have been
elected yet," the letter from the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP)
said. "The partial results were published, but no definitive results
have been proclaimed." The letter written by CEP President Leon Manus
was sent to election observers with the Organisation of American
States (OAS), who alleged earlier in the week that voting
percentages in the May 21 first-round elections were
miscalculated.Election results announced last week indicated that the
ruling Lavalas Family, the party of former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, was headed to a landslide victory. Lavalas Family won
outright 16 of the 19 Senate seats contested in the election and 23 of
83 seats in the Chamber of Deputies,according to preliminary results
from the CEP. More than 50 deputy seats appeared headed for runoffs on
June 25 because no candidate won an outright majority of first-round
votes. Elections still have not been held in Grand Anse, one of Haiti's
nine geographic departments, due to partisan bickering. The May
election, Haiti's first national vote in more than three years, was
considered a critical step in the Caribbean nation's struggle to build
a stable democracy after decades of dictatorship and military
rule. The vote was postponed four times due to the logistical problem
of registering 4 million voters in a nation of 7.5 million people.
The election aimed to fill 19 of the 27 Senate seats and all 83 seats
in the Chamber of Deputies as well as thousands of municipal posts.
Candidates needed 50 percent of the vote plus one to win the election
outright. OAS observers said they analysed the election data and found
the calculations had been conducted incorrectly, with only votes for
the top few candidates tallied to determine whether the 50 percent
threshold had been reached. In some races there were 20 to 30
candidates, meaning votes for lesser candidates were not counted
in determining whether a candidate captured more than 50 percent of
the vote.
NO SUGGESTION OF FRAUD
The observer mission did not suggest that fraud had been committed or
that the results would change. It asked the council to redo its
calculations using the proper methods. "No human work is perfect. You
always find errors and faults in it," the CEP letter said. The letter
accused the OAS of trying to mislead the Haitian people and trying to
ruin the CEP's credibility. It said the calculations were done honestly
and sincerely and followed an internationally accepted process used in
prior elections. The OAS was expected to meet with the CEP this
week, OAS spokeswoman Hannah Taylor said. Opposition party leaders
have alleged that Lavalas party members dominated the CEP, a
nine-member council required by Haiti's constitution to organise
elections. Lavalas has denied that it had any undueinfluence over the
balloting. Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis said on Tuesday that
he supported the CEP and urged all political candidates to stay in the
race for the June 25 runoff, which some disgruntled opposition
candidates had vowed to boycott. He said the matter was one of
Haitian internal affairs.Haiti's government has been paralysed for most
of the past three years after parliamentary elections held in April
1997 were declared fraudulent. President Rene Preval dissolved
Parliament in January 1999 and has ruled by decree since.The Lavalas
Family hoped to win control of parliament in anticipation of a return
to power by Aristide, who is widely expected to run for and win the
presidency later this year.A U.S.-led invasion force in 1994 restored
Aristide, Haiti's first freely elected president, after a military
coup removed him from office in 1991.