Haiti’s CEP raises concern about poll deadline
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) — The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has expressed concern about meeting the February 7 deadline for the handover of power to a new president.
Hours after a five-member commission issued a report questioning the integrity of the October 25 presidential and legislative elections, the head of the CEP, Pierre-Louis Opont, in a letter to President Michel Martelly, said 12 days of preparation will not be enough to complete the process prior to the elections.
Opont’s concern about the elections came four days after he informed Martelly that the CEP was ready to hold the presidential runoff on Jan. 17, the last feasible date to meet the deadline.
“The Provisional Electoral Council is in the painful obligation to inform you that, following its extraordinary plenary meeting of Monday, January 4, 2016, it found that it would be very difficult if not impossible to carry out the second round of presidential elections, the partial legislative and local elections on January 17, 2016,” said Opont in the letter to the president.
Opont also said the CEP had not yet received the report from the Independent Electoral Evaluation Commission formed by the executive.
The CEP head said the Council is willing to renew its availability for a meeting with the Executive “to see the implication of this new reality and to be able to complete the electoral process with this evidence of not having a President elected on February 7, 2016.”
In response to the letter the Private Secretariat of the President has invited the Council to an urgent meeting on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments.
Last month , the CEP postponed the December 27 presidential runoff to allow a five-member commission to address allegations of multiple voting and ballot tampering.
The opposition is demanding an independent review of the late October first round of voting, which it insists was rigged in favour of government-backed candidate — banana exporter, Jovenel Moise.
Moise will go up against the former head of a construction company, Jude Celestin, who came second in the first round of voting.
