Port-au-Prince, Haiti – A member of Haiti’s electoral council said results of the nation’s presidential elections were being manipulated, echoing complaints by supporters of Rene Preval who poured into the streets Sunday with angry allegations of fraud.
With 75 percent of votes counted, Preval was falling short of winning Tuesday’s elections outright by less than a percentage point. Preval was leading 33 candidates with 49.1 percent of the vote. Leslie Manigat, also a former president, was second with 11.7 percent.
“According to me, there’s a certain level of manipulation,” Pierre Richard Duchemin, an electoral council member, told The Associated Press, adding that “there is an effort to stop people from asking questions” about the counting process.
Duchemin said Sunday he needed access to vote tallies in hopes of learning who was behind the alleged manipulation. He called for an investigation.
Preval’s supporters poured out of different neighborhoods of the capital and converged on the electoral council headquarters. Blowing horns and pounding drums, they denounced Jacques Bernard, director-general of the nine-member electoral council.
“Jacques Bernard is a thief. He doesn’t know how to count,” they chanted. U.N. peacekeepers blocked Preval supporters from reaching the Montana Hotel, where election officials have been giving updates on the results.
“When you get thousands of people on the streets, things can get unpredictable,” said U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst. Bernard denied accusations that the council voided many votes for Preval, a former president.
Suspicion has risen among many Haitians that the results were being manipulated in the five days since voters turned out in droves to elect a new government. It will replace an interim government installed after then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a bloody rebellion two years ago.
Jean-Henoc Faroul, the president of an electoral district with 400,000 voters northeast of the capital, accused the electoral commission of trying to force a runoff.
“The electoral council is trying to do what it can to diminish the percentage of Preval so it goes to a second round,” Faroul told AP.
Faroul said he wanted Preval to win but that he would protest if any candidate were being denied votes by manipulation.
“I am not only the president of an electoral board, but I also vote,” Faroul said. “And I want my vote and the votes of all the people to be respected.”
The electoral council abruptly canceled a Sunday-evening news conference.
