According to a draft report by the Organization of American States (OAS) involved in verification processes of the preliminary results of the first round, which has not been released publicly, but the Associated Press (AP) obtained a copy today, under conditions of anonymity, the report recommends that the candidate Jude Célestin is excluded from the second round and replaced by Michel Martelly candidate who will face Mirlande Manigat former first lady, for the presidency of Haiti.

The experts found that tens of thousands more votes than previously thought should be discarded because polling-place officials did not follow procedures or because there were signs that the tally sheets had been altered.

"After a thorough statistical analysis... the Expert Mission has determined that it cannot support the preliminary results of the presidential elections released on December 7, 2010" the report said.

ccording to the review, the candidate Michel Martelly (Repons peyizan) would end up in second place with 22.2% after having 7,150 votes ruled invalid. Ruling party candidate Jude Célestin (INITE) would drop to third place with 21.9% after losing 17,220 votes.

"Should this recommendation be implemented, the position of the candidate in third place would change to second and the candidate now in second place would move to third" the draft report states directly.

Former first lady Mirlande Manigat would remain in first place with 31.6%of the vote after having 13,830 of her votes thrown out.

The expert team of the OAS decided not to recommend throwing out the first-round vote and conducting a new nationwide election, as some observers and candidates have requested.

President Préval should not react to the conclusions of the report of the OAS before Wednesday and the ceremonies marking the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) will have to decide how to respond to these recommendations.

HL/ HaitiLibre