ARTICLE - MANIGAT WON'T CHALLENGE RESULTS

HAITI'S EX-FIRST LADY WON'T CHALLENGE RESULTS GIVING PRESIDENTIAL WIN TO POPULAR MUSICIAN
(Washington Post) - By AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE — The second-place finisher in Haiti’s presidential runoff will not challenge the preliminary results, a spokesman said Friday, putting musician Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly closer to becoming president.

Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady and senator, has doubts about the veracity of preliminary results that showed she won only 32 percent of the vote in the presidential runoff, but she won’t file a challenge with the electoral council, campaign spokesman Jean-Junior Joseph said.

Joseph did not specify why he thought the results were flawed, only that he “strongly believes” that Manigat should have received more votes. “We ran a tight campaign,” he said.

The spokesman also declined to discuss why the campaign would not contest the results with Haiti’s electoral council.

Preliminary results showed that Martelly, a popular performer of Haitian compas music who has never before held public office, received nearly 68 percent of the vote in the March 20 presidential runoff against Manigat, the electoral council said.

Final results are scheduled to be announced April 16. No formal challenges have yet been made to the presidential results though several have been made against the results of legislative races, council spokesman Pierre Thibault said.