ARTICLE - ELECTIONS - 1,518 MINUTES EXCLUDED

ELECTIONS: 1,518 MINUTES EXCLUDED, CANDIDATES CONCERNED
(HaitiLibre.com)

Widmarck Matador, the Director of the Vote Tabulation Centre (CTV), declared yesterday at a press conference at the CTV, that all the minutes of presidential elections are already legally verified and that 82.36% of the tabulation has been completed.

Following the postponement of the date of publication for the preliminary results of the second round, Wildmack Matador explained that "Following the recommendations, we had an enhancement of the verification criteria that we have applied to the tabulation center.

Because of this enhancement we were obliged to send 15.200 minutes to the lawyers [Legal Control Unit], to verify their authenticity; to check that they do not have fraud. Our system has been heavily weighed down, and we must take the time to do this job. If we do not this ...., another Mission comes and that two months, three months after... we give the results of the 2nd round. What is most important for us is the integrity of the election, and the respect of the vote of the people. We are obliged to take our time to do an honest job, to be able to give reliable results, accurate results."

The Director of the CTV determined that 1,518 minutes concerning the presidential election were excluded, noting that this decision of the Legal Control Unit is administrative and not judicial. The candidates or their duly authorized representatives may challenge the shelving of PV within 72 hours after the publication of the preliminary results and thus begin the legal process of challenge.

These 1,518 minutes represent 14% of 11,090 minutes received for the presidential election. A number that is lower than the number used by the candidates' parties in their accusations and their war of reciprocal numbers... It is necessary to remember that in the first round of the presidential elections, about 3,000 minutes had been shelved; of which 1.045 were for the candidate Jude Célestin.

The two candidates Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly will be allocated in proportions unknown to this day, of these frauds and irregularities, because we must not be blind; the fraudster partisans of both parties did not change their nature between the two rounds of elections and none of the two candidate, can without lie, declare itself free from fraud.

To prove this it is sufficient to consult the audits of the Mission of the OAS whose criteria are the same as those used today, to see that Michel Martelly had 7.150 votes deleted and Mirlande Manigat 13.830 deleted for fraud or irregularities.

It is impossible to estimate without knowing the distribution of the minutes between the two candidates, the polling stations concerned and the result of contestations after the publication of the preliminary results of the the second round, the number of votes that will be subtracted from the vote and the influence this might have on results. It is reasonable to think that the increase of the voter turnout estimated by the CNO around 30% will compensate in quantity these votes. What will make the difference are the regions concerned by these minutes excluded combined with the voter turnout in these same regions.