Haiti - Elections : The Economic Forum is amazed by the results
Reginald Boulos, Coordinator of the Economic Forum of the Haitian private sector and President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti (CHIC) said in a statement that the Executive Committee of the Economic Forum of the Private Sector expresses its reservations and its amazement, facing to the preliminary election results of November 28 published on December 7 by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP).
Referring more particularly to the scores obtained by candidates at the Presidency, the Committee notes that they differ significantly from those derived from counts of samples of minutes conducted not only by the Forum, but also by observers, embassies, international institutions and other independent entities. The Forum then chosen by wisdom and respect for election law, to not to publish the result of counting performed on election day. All these results show a second round with Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly.
The Forum believes it is crucial to ensure that the electoral process reflects, ultimately, the real will of voters and not be tainted by unfortunate errors or irregularities, such as to deprive citizens of their right to freely choose their political leaders. In this sense, the Forum invited the candidates concerned to use all legal means available to them during the electoral dispute in order to establish and correct, if necessary, any situation likely to distort the expression of the popular will.
However, given the rapidly deteriorating of the situation and the anger expressed by voters disappointed with the results, the Forum appealed to all protagonists to find a negotiated solution that respects in a clear way the popular will. The country is in crisis and can not even bear the brunt of a prolonged crisis and the Forum hopes that the patriotism of each other will allow to avoid chaos and destruction of lives and property.
