A supporter of the Fanmi Lavalas party presidential candidate, Marise Narcisse, protest in front of a police barricade in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Nov. 22 2016.

Haiti voted in presidential, parliamentary and local elections on Sunday that were meant to end a year of political and economic uncertainty. A previous vote in October 2015 was annulled due to allegations of widespread fraud. Official results are not expected until next week. </s> Members of the General Security Unit of the National Palace (USGPN) try to disperse supporters of Fanmi Lavalas political party as they march next to the National Palace of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, November 21, 2016. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Election tensions spilled onto Haiti's streets on Monday with shots fired outside the presidential palace as various candidates claimed victory in a re-run vote in the impoverished Caribbean country.

Haitians are counting on their next president to lift the country out of political limbo and repair damage from Hurricane Matthew, which devastated the country last month, killing up to 1,000 people and leaving 1.4 million needing aid.

With paper ballots counted laboriously by hand, election results typically take a week to be announced in Haiti. But less than 24 hours after polling centers had closed, some candidates and their supporters claimed they had won, leading to chaotic scenes in the capital where guards were forced to shoot into the air to clear a celebrating crowd.

The provisional electoral council (CEP) released a statement urging the public to disregard any premature victory announcements.

"We call on the population not to believe or transmit any pseudo-result, even partial, that has reached them," it said. "Any result circulating on the internet or social media is not attributable to the CEP."

Electoral officials said they did not expect to have preliminary results until later on Monday, but it could well be longer as tally sheets arrived later than planned and a vote website faced problems. The head of Haiti's electoral council, Leopold Berlanger, said he expected to publish final results within a maximum of eight days.

Voter turnout in the election was less than 22 percent, an electoral observation coalition said on Monday.

The vote was first held in October 2015, but then annulled over complaints of fraud in the first round after Jovenel Moise, the candidate of former President Michel Martelly's Bald Heads Party, finished ahead of Jude Celestin, previously boss of a state construction company.

Further disputes ensued and a fresh vote due last month was postponed when Hurricane Matthew struck.

All told, more than two dozen candidates competed in Sunday's vote, including Moise, Celestin and Maryse Narcisse, who is running for the Fanmi Lavalas party and is backed by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Former Senator Moise Jean-Charles is also in the running.

On Monday, a spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Haitians to come together to fill the current political vacuum, reject violence and intimidation and use legal means for any possible challenges.

Narcisse's campaign and that of Moise, an entrepreneur who was tipped to prevail by one recent opinion poll, both claimed they had won.

"According to the report of our tally sheets, we are saying that Jovenel Moise is the elected president of the country," said Calvin Cadet, a spokesman for Moise. "Given that we respect the institutions of our country, we wait for the provisional electoral council to announce the results."

Narcisse's supporters marched to the presidential palace on Monday, where they were met by security officials who shot warning shots into the air. A contingent of national police officers then dispersed the supporters.

Martelly left office in February, and since then Haiti has been in the hands of a caretaker government. To win outright in the first round, the top candidate must secure more than 50 percent of the vote or a lead of at least 25 percentage points.

Failing that, a Jan. 29 second round run-off is likely for the top two finishers. The victor is due to take office in February, and faces a formidable task rebuilding the country after Matthew.

The deadly storm battered homes, farms and schools across southern Haiti, piling fresh misery onto the nation of more than 10 million people on the western half of the island of Hispaniola that is still recovering from a major earthquake in 2010.

There were a number of reports of voting fraud on Sunday, although election observers made a broadly positive assessment, suggesting it had gone more smoothly than last year. </s> PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haitians have chosen banana exporter Jovenel Moise as their next president, provisional results released by the election council on Monday showed, with the political novice winning a majority and avoiding a second round runoff.

Moise won 55.67 percent of the vote in the Nov. 20 election, the electoral council said, a majority that means the impoverished Caribbean nation will avoid a runoff and a political void, so long as the losing candidates do not contest the result.

“We want to salute the maturity of the Haitian people,” said Leopold Berlanger, president of the election council, which organized the vote weeks after a devastating hurricane hit the country.

The results follow a week of protests and unrest led by supporters of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas Party, which claimed victory for its candidate, Maryse Narcisse, soon after the election.

After the results, supporters of Moise danced to a band in a middle-class neighbourhood in the capital.

Earlier, Fanmi Lavalas protesters marched through various neighbourhoods, and police blocked attempts to burn tires. The result appears unlikely to quell the unrest.

The election was a repeat of a vote originally held in October 2015 that was overturned after allegations of fraud.

It was scheduled for Oct. 9, but was postponed again after the Category-4 Hurricane Matthew tore through the Caribbean nation, killing up to 1,000 people and leaving 1.4 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

Election results are slow to be released in Haiti because votes are hand counted and transported across unreliable country roads, a situation made worse by Matthew, which tore up much of the south.

Moise was the chosen successor to former President Michel Martelly, a singer. A political unknown before last year, Moise also came first in the October 2015 vote, a result that triggered protests and the claims of fraud from opponents.

Moise, 48, is a successful businessman, running a banana export company that he sees as a model for rural development. As president he will face the daunting task of reviving Haiti’s economy and rebuilding a country that was still recovering from a 2010 earthquake when the hurricane hit.

The election took place without any major security incidents. Although turnout was very low and critics charged there had been instances of fraud, electoral observers said the vote had been acceptable.

Interim president Jocelerme Privert, who took power after Martelly left without an elected successor in February, called for calm in an address before the results were released.

He also said the political uncertainty of the past year had compromised economic and political development, referring to the $55 million that Haiti spent without assistance from the international community.

“When we spend $55 million to have elections, that is 55 kilometers of roads that we cannot construct,” Privert told journalists. “That is 55 high schools that we cannot construct. That is 110 lower-grade schools that we cannot construct.”

The electoral council said 12 percent of the tally sheets were set aside because of irregularities and were not included in the count. </s> Haiti Electoral Council Calls for Calm, Promises Poll Results on Monday



PORT-AU-PRINCE Ė Haitiís Provisional Election Council has announced that the results of the countryís general elections last Sunday will be declared on Monday next week.



The council also called for calm as the polling data is counted, requesting both the public and political parties to wait for the final data and refrain from any actions that could exacerbate rising tensions.



Speaking at a press conference Friday, the councilís head Leopold Berlanger stressed that the council is working hard to deliver the results by Monday and is aware that people are waiting but wants to do a good job to prevent another crisis.



The political parties and candidates will have the obligation to respect the electoral decree so as not to create a fresh post electoral crisis, Berlanger added.



The statements came hours after the two presidential candidates, in letters to the council, denounced the existence of alleged irregularities inside the computing centers.



Jude Celestin of the Lapeh party urged the council to be careful in the process of scrutinizing the votes to prevent another post electoral crisis after the one witnessed in 2015.



Maryse Narcisse of the Fanmi Lavalas party alleged that many votes from the polling stations in the capitalís Cite Soleil, where she claims to be strong, have not been taken for counting.



Since Feb. 15, 2016, a provisional government led by Jocelerme Privert has been running the country following the conclusion of the term of former President Michel Martelly without the election of a successor, leading to a political crisis. </s> Moise, who ran for former President Michel Martelly's Bald Heads Party, won with 55.67 percent of votes cast in the Nov. 20 election, the electoral council said on Monday. The result avoids a second round run-off next year.

Police used tear gas on protesters in the La Saline neighborhood, a stronghold of Fanmi Lavalas, the leftist party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It called the results an "electoral coup."

The United States Embassy also issued reports of demonstrations, gunshots and burning tires in downtown Port-au-Prince and Malpasse, a town close to the border with the Dominican Republic.

A spokesman for the Haitian national police said it was responding to protests in La Saline but could not confirm whether protests in Malpasse had taken place.

Moise, the front-runner in a scrapped election last year, received a majority of votes, meaning there is no need for a second round.

"We salute those who voted for me and those who did not vote for me," Moise said. "We are going to use the people, the sun, the land and water to develop the country."

In the upscale suburb of Petionville, residents danced and cheered the result.

Jude Celestin, a mechanical engineer who had led a government construction firm, came in second. He received just under a fifth of the vote.

Moise Jean-Charles, a leftist senator, netted 11 percent, while Narcisse, running for Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party, won around 9 percent, the preliminary results showed.

However, turnout was low and 10 percent of sheets tallying votes were thrown out because of irregularities. In a country of 10 million people, Jovenel Moise received just 600,000 votes.

Three people on the nine-member electoral council did not sign the report declaring Moise the winner, although the council's president did not say who had abstained.

Those elements fueled a universal condemnation of the results from the losing candidates, who have 72 hours to contest before the final results are released on Dec. 29.

"We reject the results because they are invalid votes that have been counted," said Michel Andre, a lawyer for second-place finisher Celestin. "Jude Celestin will challenge the results."

Moise Jean-Charles also said on Tuesday that he would fight the results. "The outcome of the election is the result of a conspiracy by the economic oligarchy and sectors of the international community," he said. </s> A customer checks sugar cane sold by a street vendor next to posters of presidential candidate Jovenel Moise of PHTK (Bald Head Haitian Party) before the election in a street of Les Cayes, Haiti, November 19, 2016. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares

LES CAYES, Haiti (Reuters) - Haiti held a long-delayed election on Sunday amid scenes of devastation in parts of the country, with voters hoping a new president will lift the economy after a destructive hurricane and more than a year of political instability.

First held in October 2015, the election was annulled over allegations of fraud, and a rescheduled vote was postponed last month when Hurricane Matthew struck, killing up to 1,000 people and leaving 1.4 million needing humanitarian aid.

Homes, schools and farms across southwestern Haiti all bear the scars of Matthew, which piled fresh misery onto the nation of more than 10 million on the western half of the island of Hispaniola still recovering from a major earthquake in 2010.

"We are in a political crisis. We need an elected government to get out of this situation," said 19-year-old Launes Delmazin as he voted for the first time in a school in Les Cayes, a southwestern port ravaged by Matthew last month.

Polling stations were due to open at 6 a.m. local time (6.00 a.m. ET), although some were slow to do so. Some people in the capital, Port-au-Prince, complained they were unable to vote because their names did not appear on lists at the stations.

Still, early indications from electoral observers suggested the balloting was proceeding more smoothly than last year.

More than two dozen candidates are competing to succeed Michel Martelly, who left the presidency in February. Since then, a caretaker government has run the country.

Local opinion polls are viewed with skepticism by civil society groups, though a recent survey by pollster BRIDES made local entrepreneur Jovenel Moise the favorite to take the presidency for Martelly's Bald Heads Party in the first round.

Among his competitors are the onetime boss of a government construction company, Jude Celestin, former senator Moise Jean-Charles, and Maryse Narcisse, a doctor backed by ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) said on Thursday preliminary results of the vote are not expected until Monday.

Unless one candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote or wins by at least 25 percentage points, a second round run-off is in prospect for the top two finishers on Jan. 29. The victor is scheduled to take office in February.

Officials said the lingering effects of the hurricane risk depressing voter turnout in the poorest country in the western hemisphere, where democratic participation is generally low.

Haiti's political leaders urged people to get out and vote.

"Today is the day when the Haitian people are called to choose between chaos, anarchy or political stability," said interim President Jocelerme Privert, who is not running.

In Damassin on the southern coast, house after house was covered with tarpaulin, downed trees lined roads and the polling center, a school, was filled with debris and had no roof, forcing officials to move the vote to a small blue tent outside.

"The country has been destroyed," said Luc Albert Jean-Claude, a 74-year-old farmer casting his vote in Damassin. "We want the country to return to a normal state."

To safeguard voting in a country with a history of electoral violence, around 13,000 officers from the national police and the United Nations were mobilized for Sunday.

Justice Minister Camille Edouard told Reuters "at least a dozen" people had been arrested on suspicion of trying to commit electoral fraud or tamper with the process.

However, OCID, a group observing the elections, said in a initial review that most polling stations were operating normally and that they had logged less than a quarter the number of complaints registered at this point in October 2015. </s> In a classroom of a devastated local college, an instructor is impressing upon a group of construction workers that the earthquakes and other natural disasters that seem to inflict disproportionate pain on the people of Haiti are not “God’s wrath”.

It has been just over a month since Hurricane Matthew laid waste to the coastal city of Jérémie, killing more than 1,000 people in the region and destroying the flimsy homes of thousands of families, including scores who have taken refuge in the college and in other schools or public places.

Yet to the disbelief of people focused on the day-to-day task of recovery and basic survival, many of these same buildings are to be transformed on Sunday into voting booths for a Haitian presidential election that was postponed after the hurricane made landfall on 4 October.

“It rains every day, there are landslides, a shortage of food and people’s conditions are miserable,” said Louisiane Nazaire, a local mother and community leader in a farmers’ organisation. “Some have lost everything, including their identification cards, and yet we’re expected to believe that people are going to stand in line under the rain at voting centres that have not even been secured.”

In the western hemisphere’s poorest country, mention of the politically seismic presidential election that has just taken place a two-hour flight away in the US is met with a shrug. And yet there are echoes of that event in some of the concerns being voiced in Haiti – namely around women’s political representation (the Haitian parliament is entirely male) as well as misogyny and physical violence.

“Gender-based violence is a huge issue at any time in Haiti but it seems to increase during the election season,” said Ismeme Elismar, an engineer who has trained with support from the NGO ActionAid and is now working with the organisation in Jérémie to construct long-term safe spaces for women and children who have been at a greater risk from violence in the hurricane’s aftermath.

“For example, female candidates don’t campaign at night, when women are at a higher risk of violence and sexual assault.”

Until this week, Jérémie had seen little election campaigning of any sort in comparison with the Haitian capital of Port au Prince, which emerged from the hurricane unscathed, and where political bunting and posters are in evidence everywhere.

On Wednesday, however, when residents of the so-called “city of poets” looked up, clouds of leaflets for one of the presidential candidates fluttered to earth, dropped from a small plane. Meanwhile campaigning was ramping up around the country, including in many other hurricane-stricken areas of the south where tensions surrounding the roll-out of aid have boiled over, sometimes fatally. In the southern city of Les Cayes, a young teenage boy was shot and killed on 1 November as a crowd attending the distribution of food became restless. Just a few days earlier, at the Port town of Dame-Marie, a teenage girl was killed and three others were shot in a similar incident.

This Sunday’s vote – which is accompanied by voting for a section of seats in Haiti’s senate – come after presidential elections were repeatedly delayed. Results from October 2015 were scrapped after a number of frontrunners asserted that the first round’s results were fraudulent, forcing a rerun.

On Wednesday, Haiti’s interim president, Jocelerme Privert, called on citizens to go to the polls this Sunday, describing them as “fundamental to the future of democracy in the country”.

He linked the election of a new government to stability, desperately needed to meet the challenges of rehabilitating and repairing Haiti’s infrastructure.

Recent polls have put Jovenel Moïse, of the formerly ruling Haitian Tèt Kale Party, in pole position, although he would have to go into a runoff in December if he fails to get more than 50% of votes. Other polls have showed varying levels of support for his opponents including a strong showing in one for Maryse Narcisse.

Some voters have harboured suspicions that opposing political factions have sought to use aid as leverage for securing support in some areas.

Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, disaster coordinator for the UN’s humanitarian affairs office, said: “We are acutely aware that there is the issue of politicisation of aid and we have our means to ensure that it does not impact on what we are trying to do here.

“There will always be, in any political process, those who try to use aid, and aid allocation, to support their own ends. We are not seeing that on any serious basis but it’s something we would counter if we did.” </s> The United States has expressed concern about the violent protests that have swept Haiti.

"We support the right of all people to demand a democratic and transparent government and to hold their government leaders accountable," a State Department spokesperson for Western Hemisphere Affairs told VOA, "but there is no excuse for violence. Violence leads to instability, less investment, and fewer jobs."

The comment comes after a 6th day of protests crippled the capital, Port-au-Prince and cities nationwide. At least one death was reported and there was looting and damage to businesses and cars.

Late Tuesday, a building that houses the Consulate of the Embassy of Peru and offices of the Embassy of Italy were broken into. A VOA Creole reporter who toured the facility after the incident saw a bullet casing on a stairway as well as overturned furniture and damaged office equipment.

Protesters have taken to the streets daily since February 7 to demand the resignation of President Jovenel Moise, whom they hold responsible for what they consider to be deplorable living conditions.

"There's nothing more for Jovenel to do in the country except for resigning to avoid a blood bath," lawyer Nathanael Lerine told VOA Creole in the southern city of Jacmel. "There is no place for Jovenel in the country anymore. All he does is lie. We need electricity 24/7. We need food on our tables instead of a leader who is lining his own pockets with cash. Inflation is rising— we've reached 100 Haitian Gourdes to the American dollar. Jovel has to go!"

Protesters are also demanding transparency from the government regarding the alleged misuse of $3.8 billion. The money, due to Haiti under the PetroCaribe oil alliances signed between Venezuela and Caribbean nations starting in June 2005, had been earmarked for infrastructure and social and economic projects.

Tuesday evening, the newly-elected President of the Haitian Senate, Carl Murat Cantave issued a statement saying he had met with President Moise and Prime Minister Jean Henry Ceant. Senator Cantave said he plans to meet with the economic forum on Wednesday and will continue to consult the members of the democratic sector and the Core group (comprised of the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for Haiti and ambassadors of the United States, Germany, France, Spain, the European Union and Brazil) to try to find a solution to the political crisis.

The Core group issued a communique Monday stating that it has taken note of the demands made by the protesters but deplores the loss of life and material damages incurred.

Meanwhile, protesters vow to continue marching until the president steps down.

The U.S. renewed its travel warning for Haiti Tuesday, which currently stands at Level 3 and advises travelers to reconsider planned trips to Haiti due "due to crime and civil unrest".

VOA Creole reporters Matiado Vilme and Renan Toussaint contributed to this report from Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Nike Ching contributed from the State Department </s> Haiti: President Moise says he will not step down in favour of armed gangs and drug traffickers

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 15, CMC –President Jovenel Moise says he will not step down from office and has promised Haitians he has no intention of putting the country in the hands of armed gangs and drug traffickers.

In a seven broadcast on the National Television of Haiti (TNH) on Thursday night, Moise, who is under pressure from opposition parties to step down, acknowledged that “the crisis we are going through is very serious.

“It threatens the foundation of the country, it has a lot of consequences for the country. There are people who do not make democracy… who want to impose on the nation something that is not good for them. It is clear to all that it is only the dialogue with all the forces of the nation that will help us get out of this situation,” he added.

Opposition political parties have been staging street demonstrations in support of their calls for President Moise to step down, after accusing him of not investigating allegations of corruption in the previous government over PetroCaribe, an oil alliance of many Caribbean states with Venezuela to purchase oil on conditions of preferential payment. At least seven people have been killed in the protests so far. Several others have been injured in clashes with police.

Earlier this month, the President of the Superior Court of Accounts and Administrative Disputes (CSC/CA), Pierre Volmar Demesyeux, presented a copy of the report on the management of projects financed by the PetroCaribe funds to the Speaker of the Senate Carl Murat Cantave.

Cantave has since presented the report to Senator Youri Latortue, the President of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

The Catholic Bishops of the Episcopal Conference Haiti (CEH) earlier this week urged Haitians to come together and deal with the political situation confronting the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country and several Western countries have condemned the “unacceptable acts of violence” in the country.

CARICOM has also expressed concern at the violence and called for dialogue among all stakeholders. Several foreign embassies have closed and non-essential staff members have been sent out of the country. The United States has told its citizens “do not travel to Haiti”

In his broadcast, Moise, who was sworn in as head of state on February 7, 2017, said he has “heard the voice of the people, I know the problems like you” adding “that’s why there will be a set of measures that the government will take”.

Moise said that while demonstrations are a right “it is unacceptable for people who have official functions to demonstrate alongside armed gang leaders wanted by the authorities” an apparent reference to photos circulating here showing the gang leader Arnel Joseph, accompanied by his heavily armed supporters participating in the opposition demonstrations.

He dismissed suggestions by the opposition that the photo was being circulated by the authorities in a bid to discredit the opposition.

Moise said that he would continue to ask the Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN) to make arrangements so as to ensure the safety of members of the population who are engaged in peaceful demonstrations.

In his broadcast, Moise said that he has no intention of stepping down before the end of his mandate and that “I will not let go of the country in the hands of armed gangs and drug traffickers.

“I ask the CSPN to continue to make arrangements to stop all the drug dealers, the people who burn the police, who mourn and terrorize the population.”

Moise said he was open to dialogue with the opposition to finding a solution to the crisis, despite the position of the opposition in rejecting such a move..

“The country is suffering too much. I open my arms to all those who agree with me, come to sit and talk, seek a broad consensus to find a political agreement that resolves the problems that upset the country.

“I ask all the forces of the nation to join me … to make changes for the benefit of the Haitian people, in a real dialogue,” he said.

But as Moise address ended, sporadic automatic gunfire resounded in the capital and new burning barricades were erected.
Tensions spread in Haiti after both Maryse Narcisse of the Fanmi Lavalas party and Jovenel Moise of the Haitian Tèt Kale Party declare themselves winners.