PORT AU PRINCE- Protests and sporadic gunfire erupted in Haiti’s capital late last night after electoral authorities announced the country’s inconclusive presidential election would go to a run-off vote.
Gunshots echoed in some parts of the sprawling capital of Port-au-Prince following the announcement that former first lady Mirlande Manigat and government technocrat Jude Celestin would face a deciding second round in January following a turbulent November 28 vote.
Protesting supporters of a third-placed candidate, popular musician Michel Martelly, lit burning barricades in the Petionville district, and in a crowded earthquake survivors’ camp near the presidential palace, witnesses said.
The protesters yelled slogans backing Martelly and against outgoing President Rene Preval, and hurled bottles and stones. Heavily armed police patrolled the streets of the capital, most of which was in darkness without electricity.
They forced some of the protesters at gunpoint to dismantle the barricades. Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council announced the preliminary official results nine days after the presidential and legislative elections were held amid protests, fraud charges and sporadic violence in the poor Caribbean country, which is also suffering a cholera epidemic.
Martelly finished less than 1 percentage point behind Celestin, a protege of Preval. Martelly has already accused Preval and Celestin and trying to rig the elections.
The run-off was announced between the top two vote winners after no candidate gained the more than the 50 percent required to win in the first round.
Manigat garnered 31.37 percent of the first round votes ahead of Celestin with 22.48 percent, according to the results read to reporters by Provisional Electoral Council spokesman Richard Dumel Thibault.
The electoral council announced the preliminary results on the basis of just over a million votes counted, out of a total of 4.7 million registered potential voters. The second round has been provisionally set for January 16, but the date has to be confirmed by electoral authorities. (Reuters)
