Haitians faced growing concerns of voter fraud Friday ahead of presidential elections as the
desperately poor nation gripped by cholera struggles to rebuild after a
devastating earthquake.
With the cholera toll soaring past
1,600 and the number of confirmed infections approaching 70,000, candidates
cranked up campaigning ahead of Sunday’s crucial vote for a successor to
President Rene Preval.
The head of Haiti’s electoral
registry, which signs up eligible voters and verifies their IDs on Election Day,
voiced fears that widespread fraud could “hijack” poll results.
“I think there will be fraud
everywhere,” Philippe Augustin said.
Richard Dumel of the Provisional
Electoral Council said he was aware of fraudulent papers in circulation but
insisted the election organisers had “the technical means of detecting
false ballots and false tally sheets.”
Leading the race to the ruined
palace were Jude Celestin, the ruling party candidate backed by Preval, and Mirlande Manigat, a 70-year-old former first
lady and academic who leads most opinion polls and could become Haiti’s first
female president.
None of the 18 candidates is
expected to pass the 50 per cent threshold for outright victory, paving the way
for a 16 January run-off. Results of the
first round may not be known until December.
The winner will face an almost
insurmountable task in the midst of an explosive mixture of disaster, intense
poverty, fresh economic turmoil and a roiling cholera epidemic.
“The new government will have
great difficulty serving the population. The administration is in tents, it was
amputated of competent staff and it has lost its records and benchmarks,”
said Joseph Jasmin, Haiti’s minister of parliamentary relations.
The lead-up to the election has
been marred by deadly clashes between rival political
factions and anti-UN riots in the northern city of Cap-Haitien over the
growing cholera outbreak.
More than four million Haitians are
eligible to vote in the elections that will also see 11 of the country’s 30
senators and all 99 parliamentary deputies chosen.
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