Haiti Election Postponed

On December 21, 2015, Haiti's election council made an announcement for the postponement of the December 27th presidential runoff amid accusations of frauds and irregularities by the opposition candidates. However, the UN Security Council has urged the Haitian administration for a quick reschedule of its postponed presidential election to avoid further unrest. The second round of the presidential election was scheduled to be held on December 27th, because the two leading candidates of the first round election on October 25, 2015, could not reach the electoral mandates of 50% plus vote benchmark, or a lead of over 25% votes as prescribed by the Haiti's Constitution and Electoral Decree to win the presidential race. Voter turnout on the October 25 election day was also very low -- only 1.5 million of the 5 million registered voters were present to exercise their rights at the polling stations. There were numerous allegation of false voting, manipulation on counting and there were huge protests against the results published by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) favoring the outgoing president Martelly's candidate Jovenel Moise.

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An exit poll revealed that a little over 6% of voters had said that they have supported Martelly's handpicked successor Jovenel Moise and that support placed him on the fourth rank, however, when the result was out, he came on the top over all other candidates with 32.8 % of supports. Ninety percent of the 82% voters, who had earlier said on the election day that the vote was peaceful, changed their decision after publication of the election result.

Recently, on January 1, 2016, on the day of Haitian independence, President Martelly has announced that the second round of presidential runoff will be held on January 17, 2016. In a speech on the country's Independence Day, the outgoing president has called on civilians and actors to respect the rules of the game and go to the polls.

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